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Reuters/Willy Kurniawan

Here is what you need to know. 

1. The US could blacklist the Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision. The White House is considering a ban on exports of US components to Hikvision, similar to the one imposed on Huawei, according to The New York Times.
2. The trade war could put a $600 billion dent in the global economy. If trade relations continue to deteriorate, global gross domestic product would fall by 0.7%, or $600 billion, by 2021, said the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in a report released Tuesday.
3. Tesla short-sellers are making a killing in May. Traders betting against Tesla’s stock have raked in more than $1 billion of profits so far in May.
4. Nordstrom had a rough first quarter. The retailer posted earnings, revenue, same-store sales, and guidance that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
5. Huawei’s CEO buys iPhones. "iPhone has a good ecosystem and when my family are abroad, I still buy them iPhones, so one can’t narrowly think love for Huawei should mean loving Huawei phones," Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei said, according to The South China Morning Post.
6. 15 companies that could get taken out in the next 12 months. Morgan Stanley looked at market cap, debt-to-assets, dividend yield, and other things, and says these 15 companies are most likely to be taken over.
7. George Soros isn’t always right. Here are eight predictions made by the billionaire investor — and their outcomes.
8. Stock markets around the world are mostly higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (+0.18%) led the gains in Asia and Britain’s FTSE (+0.46%) was out front in Europe. The S&P 500 was set to open little changed near 2,864.  
9. Earnings reports keep coming. Lowe’s and target report ahead of the opening bell while L Brands releases its quarterly results after markets close.
10. US economic data is light. The minutes from the Fed’s May 1 meeting will cross the wires at 2 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.43%. 

NOW WATCH: WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

See Also:

• Share your opinion — become a BI Insider!
• Career experts say asking these 8 questions at work will show your CEO that you’re a born leader
• More than 7,000 stores are closing in 2019 as the retail apocalypse drags on — here’s the full list

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NBC

• Direct-to-consumer companies that grew up online are ramping up spending on TV.
• But TV is still too pricey and lacking in performance metrics for many of them.
• Comcast Ventures, the investment arm of cable giant Comcast, is trying to create the next generation of television advertisers by teaching its DTC portfolio companies how to buy TV.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As direct-to-consumer companies that launched on Facebook look for their next customers, at some point they’ll look to television, with its ability to introduce products to a new, mass audience.

But for many of these performance-driven companies, TV is still out of reach in price and ability to prove it drives sales.

Read more: TV giants like NBCUniversal and CBS are gunning for direct-to-consumer ad dollars, but challenges still hold back marketers

Comcast Ventures, the investment arm of cable giant Comcast, is trying to crack the code. The 20-year-old fund has 55 consumer-aimed startups in its portfolio, including direct-to-consumer companies Away luggage, fashion jeweler Baublebar, and discount store Hollar. Four years ago it launched Accelerate, a program to help its DTC portfolio companies advertise on linear TV. Eight companies have gone through the program, including Away, Baublebar, and Zola.

"Many startups come up through digital advertising," Arjun Kapur, growth partner at Comcast Ventures and head of Accelerate, told Business Insider. "Over time, their cost of acquisition on Facebook, Google, goes up. We recognized, TV is expensive. So we take over all the TV advertising for a startup. We probably fast-forward their life on TV by two years. We’re creating the next generation of TV advertisers."

Comcast Ventures provides agency-like services

Comcast Ventures does many of the things an ad agency would: Advising the companies on (but not making) creative and handling their TV planning, buying, optimizing, and measurement. The goal is to prove TV works so the startup can hire its own agency and experts.

The program also helps Comcast’s other units by steering business their way.

NBCUniversal does around $10 billion in annual TV revenue and is looking to DTC companies to fuel its growth. The startups that have gone through Comcast Ventures’ Accelerate spend $3 million to $5 million on TV per year, said Andrew Kwok, who has been managing the program since 2017, and a portion of that goes to NBCU and Comcast cable properties. (Kapur said Comcast Ventures takes advantage of its corporate brethren NBCUniversal and Comcast Cable but it doesn’t limit its ad buys to those properties. "Our goal is to get the best ROI; for some, NBC, Comcast, doesn’t work. We’re agnostic to what their media plan ends up being.")

To be sure, DTC’s impact on TV is still a drop in the $70 billion annual TV advertising bucket — for all of 2018, DTC companies spent $2 billion in TV advertising. But DTC companies are starting to nibble away at traditional marketers that have been the bedrock of television’s business.

Comcast Ventures is smart to give these companies media skills at a time when few DTC companies are doing TV and fewer are doing it well, said Mike Duda, managing partner at agency and venture capital fund Bullish, which has invested in DTC darlings like Casper, Harry’s, and Birchbox.

"If all you do is bring money, it’s a commodity," he said.

Comcast Ventures is trying to expand its services beyond TV advertising

The Accelerate program has largely flown under the radar. Now Comcast Ventures is ramping it up with new hires and plans to extend it to other kinds of advertising and services, like events, or payment processing. It hired Kapur in March to oversee the program and Sue Kwon in October to help Comcast Ventures’ and its portfolio companies with their PR and marketing.

"We started in TV and are expanding beyond that," Kapur said. "Just bringing an investment dollar to a company is no longer valuable. There are so many businesses that need the support, expertise we have, that we should be leveraging. That’s what the next generation of founders wants."

Comcast Ventures is also looking at ways it can push other levers at Comcast to benefit its portfolio companies. To that end, it hired Madura Wijewardena in January as head of business development to connect portfolio companies with other units in Comcast.

TV is still daunting for many DTC companies

TV still has its doubters for many DTC companies, because of the sticker shock and skepticism it can drive sales. Companies have to be big enough to take part in the program, which is invite-only.

Bullish’s Duda said many DTC founders are brilliant but they’re too narrowly focused on performance marketing, and at some point, its effectiveness will decline. Meanwhile, television can work extremely well and be another arrow in their quiver, he said.

One such startup in Accelerate was Hippo Home Insurance, which started in 2015 to simplify home insurance. The Accelerate program helped it buy cable TV inventory and measure it using TVSquared, a TV measurement and optimization firm, said Andrea Collins, head of brand marketing at Hippo.

Collins now says Hippo is sold on TV’s value for driving brand and sales goals. But Hippo initially was wary of TV’s high perceived cost and the need to prove it worked, something TV traditionally hasn’t been used for.

Kapur acknowledged these limitations. "The lead time and cost, should it not work — TV is a little bit of a fear factor," he said. "There’s a lot of companies for whom TV can seem daunting and out of reach. We reduce the chances of failure significantly. But the entry is still challenging."

Comcast Ventures is trying to get an edge

The Accelerate program serves a bigger purpose at Comcast Ventures.

CB Insights ranked Comcast Ventures as the 13th most active corporate startup investor behind firms like Google Ventures, Intel Capital, and Salesforce Ventures — down from 4th place in 2017.

With corporate venture capital pouring into startups, competition among firms is stiff. But Comcast Ventures thinks that providing these kinds of services can give it a leg up. If the startup wins, so does Comcast Ventures.

Comcast Ventures also is looking to invest earlier in a company’s lifespan to improve its chances of success.

"There’s so much money out there, but we’re trying to differentiate ourselves by bringing an advantage," Kapur said. "We all know startups are more likely to fail than not. We want to increase the success rate of the portfolio and be above the industry average."

NOW WATCH: This video shows the moment Sarah Sanders lied to a room full of reporters about FBI agents telling her they were happy Trump fired Comey

See Also:

• TV giants like NBCUniversal and CBS are gunning for direct-to-consumer ad dollars, but challenges still hold back marketers
• Google’s looming privacy changes could shake up ad retargeting — and advertisers are scrambling to find alternatives
• An Accenture Interactive exec says it’s ‘time to put the checkbook away’ after its string of acquisitions including Droga5

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Activision

• The wildly popular "Call of Duty" franchise is headed to smartphones and tablets this summer. 
• When it arrives, it will come with a 100-player Battle Royale mode along the lines of "Fortnite."
• The new "Call of Duty" Battle Royale mode is different from the Battle Royale mode included in 2018’s "Call of duty: Black Ops 3" — it more directly competes with "Fortnite" and "PUBG Mobile."
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Are you ready for another major Battle Royale game?

The folks behind "Call of Duty" are hoping you are, as the next major "Call of Duty" game comes with a brand-new Battle Royale mode — distinct from the "Blackout" mode in 2018’s "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3."

Better yet, the new mode, alongside the rest of "Call of Duty Mobile," arrives this summer as a free game for smartphones and tablets.

All of which is to say one thing: The new, free "Call of Duty" smartphone game has a built-in 100-player Battle Royale mode, and it’s aiming directly at "Fortnite" and "PUBG Mobile."

Here’s what we know about it thus far:

1. The Battle Royale mode features 100 players in a fight to the death.

Activision

You can play alone, or you can play in a team — either way, the "Call of Duty Mobile" Battle Royale mode is the same type of game as "Fortnite" and "PUBG Mobile" before it: a winner-takes-all fight to the death.

Here’s how the mode is described:

"As 100 rivals start to descend from transport aircraft high above the battlefield, you’re able to time your drop, steering to a preferred area of the map using your wingsuit and parachute, hoping your teammates are in the vicinity and enemies are sparse until you’re tooled up with preferred weapons, and ready to fight. Then it’s a fight until you (or your team) are the only ones standing!"

2. The map is a pastiche of different iconic "Call of Duty" multi-player maps.

Activision

Like with "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3," the Battle Royale map in "Call of Duty Mobile" is a collage of classic "Call of Duty" multi-player maps.

Thus far, the following maps have been identified as source material:

• "Countdown: The hangars and missile silos; elements from the map that appeared in ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Crash: The war-torn settlement with a downed helicopter in the middle, from ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Diner: The infamous eatery from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II.’
• Estate: The hilltop house and grounds, inspired by the map in from ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.’
• Farm: The foreboding rural nightmare from Zombies Survival mode, from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II.’
• Firing Range: The military practice facility, versions of which were seen throughout the from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ franchise.
• Killhouse: The small, symmetrical warehouse of mayhem from ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Launch: The cosmodrome and launch pad from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops.’
• Overgrown: A large, rural farm and fields from ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Nuketown: The iconic suburbs with a subterranean secret, as seen in all the ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ releases.
• Pipeline: The grimy and overgrown railyard from ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Seaside: The coastal multiplayer map originally from ‘Call of Duty 4: Black Ops 4.’
• Shipment: The crammed cargo docks from ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.’
• Standoff: The border town map from ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II.’"

3. There are six different classes, and each class has its own ability — along the lines of "Apex Legends."

Activision

Unlike past "Call of Duty" games, "Call of Duty Mobile" adds a variety of playable classes — each with its own abilities.

Six different classes are playable, which include the following:

• "Defender: With the ability to place a deformable Transform Shield, this class also is Reinforced, raising resistance to all damage except bullets.
• Mechanic: Able to call an EMP Drone to create electro-magnetic interference on hostile forces, this class also features the Engineer ability, granting augmented sight to vehicles, hostile traps, and other equipment.
• Scout: Utilizing the Sensor Dart that can view hostile positions in the immediate area of the radar map, this class also benefits from the Tracker ability; allowing you to see fresh footprints of hostiles.
• Clown: A master of distraction and friend of the undead, this class has a Toy Bomb to detonate, summoning zombies that only attack hostiles near to them; due in part to the Clown having the Anti-Zombie ability, which reduces the zombies’ aggression distance.
• Medic: This class can place a Medical Station that continuously heals the Medic and associated allies in the immediate vicinity. In addition, the Master Healer ability allows a Medic to heal more quickly, and reduces the time it takes to revive teammates.
• Ninja: Lastly, this clandestine class has a Grapple Gun that fires a hook, allowing you to propel yourself up and onto target buildings or across the landscape at speed. Movement is quiet too, due to this class having the Dead Silence ability."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• A top ‘Fortnite’ player who won more than $500,000 is suing his team over an ‘oppressive’ contract. Here’s why other YouTubers are taking notice.
• Now that Google and Nintendo offer digital video games, GameStop could have the same fate as Blockbuster
• This addictive ‘Game of Thrones’ smartphone game will let you give the series a brand-new ending

SEE ALSO: ‘Call of Duty: Mobile’ is coming to Android and iOS this summer. Here’s everything we know so far

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• Air China and two other Chinese airlines are demanding compensation from Boeing over its 737 Max crisis.
• The airlines are looking for compensation over losses made after the grounding of 737 Max planes in the aftermath of two fatal crashes, and delayed deliveries of more Max planes.
• They join a growing list of airlines looking for compensation or amending orders as Boeing’s crisis continues, even as some carriers continue to express support for the manufacturer.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Air China and two more of China’s largest airlines have become the latest carriers to look for compensation from Boeing as the 737 Max plane remains grounded around the world following two fatal crashes.

Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines have requested compensation from Boeing for the losses that have resulted from the grounding of their Max planes and the delayed deliveries of more of the plane model, Reuters reported, citing Chinese state TV.

They join a growing list of airlines that have reacted to the crashes or the wait for Boeing the plane to return to service by cancelling or amending orders, or looking for compensation.

Here is the full list:

• Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines: The airlines are asking for compensation for losses after the grounding of the planes and delayed deliveries of new Max planes
• Ryanair: The budget airline’s CEO said he wants compensation for the delays, but said his company still has confidence in Boeing.
• Turkish Airlines: The airline’s chairman said he expects compensation from Boeing and would talk with the manufacturer about its orders.
• FlyDubai: FlyDubai’s chairman said in April that the airline has the "right" to ask for compensation and could replace its order for Max jets with an order from Airbus, Boeing’s European rival, amid uncertainty over when the Max will fly again.
• Norwegian Air: Norwegian said in March that it was seeking compensation from Boeing for its grounded fleets.
• Southwest: Gary Kelly, Southwest’s chief executive, said the airline would talk to Boeing "privately" about arrangements, The Financial Times reported, though he told Bloomberg that it was "premature" to talk about what compensation it was seeking.
• United Airlines: United’s chief financial officer said in April that the airline would discuss compensation with Boeing over the grounding of the planes.
• Garuda: Indonesia’s flagship airline asked to cancel a $5 billion order for 737 Max planes because passengers "lost trust and no longer have the confidence" in the plane.

Boeing’s Max planes were grounded around the world after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed in March, killing all 157 people on board. The plane was the second Max to crash in less than five months, following a Lion Air plane that crashed in Indonesia killing the 189 people on board in October 2018.

REUTERS/Beawiharta

Boeing has completed a software update for the Max, which will undergo scrutiny from the US Federal Aviation Administration and regulators around the world before the plane can return to the skies.

Read more: After the first fatal 737 Max crash, Boeing said it hadn’t installed an extra safety feature because it might ‘confuse’ pilots

But the groundings, delayed deliveries of new Max planes, and continuing uncertainty over when the plane will be able to return to service has led airlines to cancel months of flights and warn of hits to their profits.

European and US airlines have warned that they will lose hundreds of millions of dollars over the crisis. Southwest, which has the largest 737 Max fleet in the world, said it lost $200 million in the first three months of 2019 due to cancellations caused by the grounding of the plane and the government shutdown.

Xinhua/ via Getty Images

The crisis cost Boeing itself $1 billion in the first quarter of 2019, and it also faces lawsuits from victims’ families and from shareholders and federal investigations into how the plane got certified in addition to the airlines’ demands.

Boeing has promised that the plane will be one of the "safest ever to fly" when it returns to service and that the company will "earn and re-earn" flyers’ trust. It said that it is working closely regulators and with airlines and pilots to provide additional training.

Do you work at Boeing or the FAA, or are you a pilot? Got a tip or a story to share? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +353 86 335 0386 using a non-work phone, or email her at sbaker@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM her at @sineadbaker1.

NOW WATCH: The rise and fall of Donald Trump’s $365 million airline

See Also:

• After the first fatal 737 Max crash, Boeing said it hadn’t installed an extra safety feature because it might ‘confuse’ pilots
• Boeing’s response to the 737 Max crisis confused and frightened people, making it hard to believe its apologies, experts say
• Boeing’s 737 Max is still grounded after two deadly crashes, but a poll shows people will still fly on them if tickets are cheap

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AP Images

• In an interview with Chinese state TV this week, Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei admitted to buying Apple iPhones.
• Ren was addressing calls for an Apple boycott in China after Huawei was blacklisted by the US, according to The South China Morning Post.
• Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December, was carrying a stash of Apple products at the time she was detained.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As America wages war on his company, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei has made an unlikely intervention in support of one of his biggest rivals. In an interview with Chinese state TV on Tuesday, Ren confirmed he is a fan of Apple. 

"iPhone has a good ecosystem and when my family are abroad, I still buy them iPhones, so one can’t narrowly think love for Huawei should mean loving Huawei phones," Ren said, according to The South China Morning Post.

The Post said Ren was seeking to calm a retaliatory movement in China against Apple.Social media users are calling for a boycott of the iPhone maker after Huawei was blacklisted by the Trump administration.

A Huawei spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Read more: THE TECH COLD WAR: Everything that’s happened in the new China-US tech conflict involving Google, Huawei, Apple, and Trump

We already know the Huawei dynasty has a soft spot for Apple. Bloomberg reported in March that Huawei CFO — and Ren’s daughter — Meng Wanzhou was carrying a bunch of Apple devices when she was arrested in Canada in December.

These included an iPhone 7 Plus, a MacBook Air, and an iPad Pro, in addition to a Huawei Mate 20 RS phone featuring a Porsche design, Bloomberg reported, citing court documents.

Some Huawei employees have been punished for using Apple products in the past. Earlier this year, two workers were demoted and saw their pay cut by around $700 after they tweeted out from the company’s account using an iPhone. The tweet, which was a New Year’s greeting, "Happy #2019," was marked "via Twitter for iPhone."

NOW WATCH: 5G networks will be 10 times faster than 4G LTE, but we shouldn’t get too excited yet

See Also:

• Huawei’s torment in the US could be about to backfire, dealing a stinging blow to Apple
• The founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei reportedly expects his daughter, Huawei’s CFO, to go to jail, but he’s ‘not worried about her future’
• Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei says the company is ‘fully prepared’ for a conflict with the US

SEE ALSO: Google offers Huawei a brief reprieve by putting its Android suspension on hold

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CNN

• A former Somali army colonel who fought in the country’s civil war in the 1980s, and drove for Uber in Virginia has been convicted of a war crime.
• CNN reported earlier this month that Yusuf Abdi Ali was driving for Uber and Lyft in Virginia. Ali was an Uber Pro Diamond driver rated 4.89 out of 5.
• On Tuesday Ali was found guilty by a jury of torturing Somali citizen Farhan Tani Warfaa in 1988 and ordered to pay him $500,000.
• Warfaa said Ali kidnapped him, tortured him for months, and then shot him. Warfaa said he survived by bribing the grave diggers not to scrape the earth over him.
• Somali citizens told Canada’s CBC network in 1992 they’d seen Ali murder and torture people while serving dictator Said Barre. He has not been charged over those allegations and denies them.
• Uber told Business Insider it had suspended Ali from driving soon after the CNN report was published. He started driving for Uber in November 2017.
• Visit Business Insider for more stories.

A former Somali army colonel who drove for Uber in Virginia has been found guilty of torturing a man during the country’s brutal civil war.

Yusuf Abdi Ali was tracked down and exposed by CNN reporters in May who hailed his cab on Uber. CNN reported that Ali had been accused of numerous war crimes while he commanding troops in dictator Siad Barre’s army.

On Tuesday, the BBC reported a court in Alexandria, Virginia found Ali guilty of torturing Somali citizen Farhan Tani Warfaa in 1988.

CNN

In the civil lawsuit, first filed on November 10, 2004, Warfaa said Ali and his troops kidnapped him and spent months torturing him, before Ali shot him and left him for dead in an open grave.

Warfaa told the court he bribed his gravediggers not to pile the earth onto him, and then escaped. 

Ali, known as Colonel Tukeh, or Colonel Crow, must now pay Warfa $500,000 in compensation, the jury ruled, but will not go to jail as the case was brought in a civil court. 

Ali’s lawyer, Joseph Peter Drennan told CNN Ali can’t afford it on account of him recently losing his job as an Uber driver. 

CBC/YouTube

The CNN investigation revealed that Ali — driving for Uber in Virginia since November 2017 — has been accused of killing more than 100 men. He had also driven for Lyft.

Speaking to the undercover CNN reporters who hailed his cab, Ali said he passed all of Uber’s background checks, which only took a few days.

Read more: An Uber driver was stabbed to death in New York City, and it shows a big safety problem the company needs to solve

Ali’s alleged actions during the war were documented by Canada’s CBC network in 1992, who found him working as a security guard in Toronto.

Somalian citizens who lived in the war zone told CBC they had seen Ali committing atrocities.

"Two men were caught, tied to a tree," one said. "Oil was poured on them and they were burnt alive. I saw it with my own eyes. I cut away their remains."

Another said: "He caught my brother. He tied him to a military vehicle and dragged him behind. He shredded him into pieces. That’s how he died."

CBC/YouTube

Ali denied the allegations to CBC at the time. 

Ali was deported from Canada after the CBC documentary, and moved to the US.

CNN reported Ali then worked as a security guard until 2016, whereupon they found him and confronted him about the allegations. He was fired soon after.

Ali was then tracked down again by CNN, who reported he had been driving for Uber since November 2017. Uber suspended him after the CNN report was published in May. He had a 4.89 rating. 

At the time of CNN’s report an Uber spokeswoman told Business Insider: "Drivers must undergo a driving and criminal history background check reviewing local, state and national records, and we evaluate eligibility in accordance with criteria set by local laws."

Business Insider understands Ali was not flagged on any of the government watchlists and sanctions lists searched during Uber’s screening process, and that Ali passed both TSA and FBI background checks.

NOW WATCH: We rode in a self-driving Uber — here’s what it was like

See Also:

• Uber scored a major victory when the US government ruled drivers aren’t employees, but not everyone is happy
• Wall Street’s infatuation with Uber is ending — and one analyst says its stock no longer deserves a premium over Lyft
• Uber just scored a major victory after US government rules drivers are contractors, not employees

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Pyotr Sivkov / Getty

• An Australian man won a landmark case against his employer after he was fired for refusing to hand over his biometric data to his employer.
• Jeremy Lee from Queensland, Australia, was fired from his job in February 2018 after he refused to use the company’s newly-introduced fingerprint scanners to sign in and out of work. He later sued his employer for unfair dismissal, citing his right to deny consent to the collection of his biometric data.
• Following an appeal, the court ruled in Lee’s favor, stating that his dismissal from the company was unjust.
• The case raises questions about biometric data collection and ownership, and highlights an increased concern over personal privacy.

An Australian man won a landmark case against his employer after he was fired for refusing to provide his fingerprints to sign in and out of work, raising questions about biometric data collection and ownership.

Jeremy Lee from Queensland, Australia, was fired from his job at Superior Wood Pty Ltd, a lumber manufacturer, in February 2018 after he refused to use the company’s newly-introduced fingerprint scanners to sign in and out of work. According to case documents, Lee asserted that he had ownership over the biometric data contained within his fingerprint, and that Superior Wood could not require that information from him under the country’s Privacy Act.

Lee filed a suit with Australia’s Fair Work Commission in March 2018, claiming he was unfairly dismissed from the company. The commissioner reviewing the case in June ruled in favor of Superior Wood, concluding that the fingerprinting policy was reasonable and therefore employees were obliged to comply.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of his case, Lee decided to represent himself and appeal the commission’s decision in November 2018, challenging the country’s privacy laws and raising questions about ownership of his personal data.

Ultimately Lee’s appeal was successful — on May 1, 2019, the commission ruled in his favor, stating that he was entitled to refuse to provide his biometric data to the company and that his dismissal from the company was unjust.

The case also addressed Lee’s concerns that his data could be shared with third parties.

"We accept Mr Lee’s submission that once biometric information is digitized, it may be very difficult to contain its use by third parties, including for commercial purposes," case documents state.

The landmark case brings into question who actually owns your biometric data 

YouTube/NEC Corporation

Lee’s case is the first of its kind in Australia. And while it it did not change the laws regarding ownership over biometric data, it does raise important questions over personal privacy.

Cases involving biometric data collection have become more frequent in recent years. In January, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the family of a teenager whose fingerprint was collected at a Six Flags-affiliated theme park when he visited in 2014. The family argued that neither they nor their son were informed of why the fingerprint was collected or where it was stored, which violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Cases involving biometric data collection against major tech companies like Facebook, Google and Snapchat have also been brought forward.

In an interview with Australian public broadcaster ABC Radio National on Tuesday, Lee expressed pride in the outcome of the ruling.

"I was insisting that my biometric data is mine," he told Radio National. "My objection was that I own it. You cannot take it. If someone wants to get it or take it they have to get my consent."

Lee said in his appeal that he would not object to the use of drug or alcohol testing at work, but argued that collection of data relating to his physical or physiological characteristics could be used in malicious ways.

"If someone else has control of my biometric data they can use it for their own purposes — purposes that benefit them, not me. That is a misuse," he told the Radio National.

Read more: Facebook could have to pay ‘billions’ in damages in class action lawsuit over facial recognition

According to cybersecurity firm Norton, biometrics are used to "measure a person’s physical characteristics to verify their identity," which can include their unique fingerprints, facial recognition, voice, or behavioral characteristics. While the data is used in everyday tools like authenticating someone’s identity on a smartphone, it can also be collected by medical examiners, police and even companies that have access to a person’s signature when they use a credit card.

Norton points out that the increasingly commonplace collection of biometric data raises some serious privacy concerns.

For one, the collection of sensitive data is a particularly attractive target for hackers, and the more widely available that biometric data is, the more likely it is that malicious actors will try and target that information.

Additionally, Norton says biometric data can be more vulnerable than other forms of data due to the permanent nature of the information. For example, Norton points out that while you can change your password, you cannot change your fingerprint or iris scan. And fingerprints left on commonplace items like drinking glasses can be easily duplicated by criminals.

While new technology has brought heightened awareness to the collection of biometric data, laws governing its collection, sharing, and storage are still a work in progress, as Lee’s case shows.

NOW WATCH: Facial recognition is almost perfectly accurate — here’s why that could be a problem

See Also:

• Share your opinion — become a BI Insider!
• Career experts say asking these 8 questions at work will show your CEO that you’re a born leader
• More than 7,000 stores are closing in 2019 as the retail apocalypse drags on — here’s the full list

SEE ALSO: China is monitoring employees’ brain waves and emotions — and the technology boosted one company’s profits by $315 million

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Reuters

• The Trump administration’s decision to blacklist Chinese tech firm Huawei could have an unintended victim: Apple.
• Chinese citizens are calling for an Apple boycott on social media, which could represent a threat to Apple’s already fragile iPhone sales in the country.
• UBS warned that the moves against Huawei are "a risk for Apple and the supply chain."
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Huawei has had tortuous few days after being blacklisted in the US. But now people are worrying that the treatment of the Chinese tech firm could backfire on one of America’s great corporate success stories.

Apple could well fall victim to a retaliatory movement in China. There are signs that Chinese citizens are prepared to turn their back on the company, and analysts are predicting that fragile iPhone sales in the country could take another battering.

UBS circulated a note to clients on Wednesday spelling out the risk to Apple if the tide of national opinion turns against the company over the treatment of Huawei.

"At times, foreign consumer goods have been negatively impacted in China by nationalist sentiment (which social media potentially exacerbating this)," UBS said.

"This could have been a factor regarding Apple iPhone’s poorer performance in China in 4Q18. Whilst hard to quantify, we do view this as a risk for Apple and the supply chain."

Read more: Google offers Huawei a brief reprieve by putting its Android suspension on hold

Business Insider reported last week on the "intense discussion" on Chinese social media about US President Donald Trump’s moves against Huawei. BuzzFeed News also said users of microblogging site Weibo have been calling for a boycott of Apple products.

It’s not the first time the threat of an Apple boycott has been floated. Chinese citizens and companies promised to shun Apple goods following the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in December.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported at the time that some Chinese firms were even threatening to confiscate iPhones from their employees and punish those who bought them.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-owned Global Times newspaper, is one iPhone user who is switching to Huawei because the Chinese firm is being "unreasonably suppressed" by the US government.

In a tweet explaining the decision, he added that he does not support a boycott, however. "There are many loyal users of iPhone in China and I believe they are free to decide the brand of cell phone they use," Hu added.

This was echoed by Bryan Ma, vice president of client devices research at research firm IDC Asia Pacific. He told the South China Morning Post: "There will be some who are nationalistic and say no to American products, but there are many other users to whom it does not matter as much."

But even a small swing in sentiment against Apple could be hugely damaging for the company. Apple issued a disastrous earnings warning in January, in which it warned that holiday quarter revenue would be more than 7.6% lower than it expected — in large part due to a shortfall in sales in China.

Apple’s fortunes improved in China in the first three months of 2019, with CEO Tim Cook highlighting the "improved trade dialog between the United States and China" on an earnings call last month.

But relations between the US and China have taken a dramatic turn for the worse since then, and Apple could again be caught in the crosshairs.

NOW WATCH: 5G networks will be 10 times faster than 4G LTE, but we shouldn’t get too excited yet

See Also:

• THE TECH COLD WAR: Everything that’s happened in the new China-US tech conflict involving Google, Huawei, Apple, and Trump
• How to locate and track an iPad using Find My iPhone, and lock or erase it remotely if it’s lost or stolen
• Huawei is reportedly ramping up its app store efforts in what could be another sign it was prepared for a breakup with Google’s Android

SEE ALSO: Huawei developed a ‘plan B’ operating system for smartphones in case it was banned by the US government from using Google products. Here’s what we know about it so far.

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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

• Conor McGregor has been known as one of the flashiest fighters in combat sports.
• He made $99 million in 2018 and has since launched a popular whiskey brand, Proper No. Twelve, and a clothing line called August McGregor.
• He buys designer suits, fast cars, and travels on luxury yachts.
• But he has seemingly put a stop to his spending spree after learning a money lesson from one of the biggest stars in sport, LeBron James.
• McGregor read last year that James spends $1.5 million on his body to ensure he remains at the top of NBA.
• Now McGregor is doing the same as he seemingly wants to remain fighting fit for as long as possible.
• Visit Business Insider’s home page for more stories.

Conor McGregor said he learned a crucial lesson about spending money after reading about how LeBron James spends his.

The UFC fighter, 30, has earned his fortune as one of the most marketable athletes in combat sport. He made $99 million in 2018 according to Forbes, largely because of his landmark crossover boxing rules contest against Floyd Mayweather the year before.

Since then, he has launched a widly successful whiskey brand called Proper No. Twelve and a clothing line called August McGregor that he hopes, one day, will rival Net-a-Porter.

Read more: What whiskey ‘unicorn’ Conor McGregor is actually like, according to his Proper No. Twelve business partner

McGregor makes a lot of money but he has also been known to spend a lot of money, too, thanks to his love of designer suits, Lamborghini cars, and luxury yachts.

But McGregor changed his ways when he found out what other sporting superstars spend their money on.

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Three-time NBA champion James remains one of the top athletes in basketball, even at 34 years old.

Aside from a sweet tooth for cereal, he eats well. But he also trains well. Last year it was revealed that he even spends $1.5 million every year taking care of his body, which includes the cost of his home gym, trainers, massage therapists, chefs, and more.

Read more: Why LeBron James is greater than Steph Curry, according to a 3-time NBA champion

This had a positive and lasting effect on McGregor.

"For so long, in my mid to late twenties when I started to acquire wealth and acquire money, I was fascinated with materialistic things. I would buy myself cars, watches," he told Tony Robbins in an interview recently published on TheMacLife.com, a website McGregor owns through his McGregor Sports and Entertainment Ltd company.

"I have switched off of that," McGregor said. "I realized I was spending things on material items and not on myself, my being, and my fitness. I read that LeBron James spends $1.5 million yearly on himself. Physical therapists, masseuse, nutritionists, all of that. When I saw that, I said ‘I spend zero [on myself].’"

Read more: Self-help guru Tony Robbins has been accused of making sexual advances on his followers and scolding abuse victims at his famous seminars

He went on: "When a camp forms for a fight, I’ll gather a team of people, we go into the Vegas desert and lock ourselves away for ten weeks and do insanity work. It’s half-in, it’s not all-in. You certainly cannot be that way in the fight game but in reality, you can’t be that way in any game you’re in. If you’re in a game, make sure you’re in it all the way and then that game will be your game. I’ve only taken this philosophy recently."

McGregor’s status as a fighter with the UFC is ambiguous. He announced a shock retirement from mixed martial arts in March, five months after his submission loss to his lightweight rival Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.

Within weeks, it became apparent that a return to the company was possible, as the UFC boss Dana White hinted that the fighter’s retirement wouldn’t be for good. McGregor has also said he’s " in talks" about a return to the fight game.

NOW WATCH: What it’s like to go into sudden death with Tiger Woods

See Also:

• A 25-year-old Brazilian made his UFC debut on Saturday, and won praise for his button-bashing PlayStation style victory
• The 15 greatest villains in sport
• Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Naomi Osaka retire from Rome, and nobody seems to know if they’ll be fully fit for the French Open

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• Morgan Stanley has updated its screen of large companies that are most likely to be acquired within the next 12 months. 
• The firm finds that companies in the healthcare sector have the highest chances of receiving offers.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

US companies, by and large, are still not trigger happy when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.

M&A offer intensity — or the number of propositions relative to the total number of public companies — has fluctuated around its historical median since the first quarter of 2017, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley. The firm attributes the current malaise to uncertainty about the trade war, recession concerns, and higher interest rates. 

There have been some recent exceptions, including the $89 billion tie-up between Celgene and Bristol-Myers Squibb earlier this year.

But the broader benign environment means that investors should be paying extra-close attention to any companies that dare to venture out into the dealmaking wild. 

Thankfully, Morgan Stanley has done the heavy lifting and identified dozens of large, liquid companies that are most likely to receive offers for the all their business units in the next 12 months.

Their so-called Acquisition Likelihood Estimate Rankings Tool combines factors such as market cap, debt-to-assets, and dividend yield. Some factors are linked to entire sectors: Healthcare companies, for example, are more likely to get offers, while industrials are not as deal-friendly. 

The list has been abridged to include no more than two of the largest companies in each sector. 

1. Domino’s Pizza

Markets Insider

Ticker: DPZ

Market Cap: $11.7 billion

Sector: Consumer Discretionary

Closing Price on May 21: $284.97

Source: Morgan Stanley

2. Marriott Vacations Worldwide

Markets Insider

Ticker: VAC

Market Cap: $4.3 billion

Sector: Consumer Discretionary

Closing Price on May 21: $96.74

Source: Morgan Stanley

3. Performance Food Group

Markets Insider

Ticker: PFGC

Market Cap: $4.3 billion

Sector: Consumer Staples

Closing Price on May 21: $40.94

Source: Morgan Stanley

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• GOLDMAN SACHS: These 16 stocks will get crushed on a sharp market pullback. Here’s a dirt-cheap way to profit from their demise.
• BANK OF AMERICA: Stock-picking conditions are the best since the financial crisis. Here are 7 things investors can do to maximize profits and crush the market.
• ‘The winner’s curse’: 3 reasons why the stock-market dominance of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and the rest of the mega-cap tech elite may soon be over

SEE ALSO: MORGAN STANLEY: 3 trends will dictate the fate of global markets for the rest of the year. Here’s how to profit from each one.

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