Business News Roundup, Dec. 2
Google is being accused of invading the privacy of students using laptop computers powered by the Internet company’s Chrome operating system.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, depicts Google as a two-faced opportunist in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission.
The complaint alleges that Google rigged Chromebook computers used in schools in a way that enables it to collect information about students’ Internet search requests and online video habits.
The foundation says Google is dissecting the activities of K-12 students so it can improve its digital services.
The complaint contends that Google’s storage and analysis of the activities violate a Student Privacy Pledge that it signed last year.
A company that makes copper-infused clothing agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle government charges that it falsely claimed that its garments could relieve pain and inflammation caused by arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
The Federal Trade Commission said that Tommie Copper used infomercials, print ads and social media to advertise shirts, socks, sleeves and other compression garments that it said could relieve pain better than surgery or medication, but with no scientific evidence to back up those claims.
Efforts to reach Tommie Copper’s founder Thomas Kallish, who was also named as a defendant in the FTC’s complaint, were unsuccessful.
U.S. factory activity fell last month to the lowest level in more than six years, with a stronger dollar and low oil prices cutting new orders and hurting production.
The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of factory activity in November dropped to 48.6 from 50.1 in October.
A global economic slowdown and a rising dollar have crimped exports, while lower oil prices have led energy firms to slash their orders for steel pipe and other equipment for drilling.
U.S. manufacturers have been squeezed this year as a strong dollar and weak economies in China and other key foreign markets have cut into exports
U.S. goods have become more expensive overseas, while lowering prices for imported goods that compete against American products.
U.S. construction spending jumped in October, fueled by solid gains in home building and the largest increase in federal construction in nine years.
The Commerce Department said that construction spending rose 1 percent in October from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of more than $1.1 trillion.
The construction of single-family homes and apartments climbed 1 percent, also reaching their highest level since December 2007.
Jimmy John’s has abandoned plans to take the sandwich chain public after months of consideration, the company’s founder said Tuesday.
Jimmy John Liautaud, who started the chain in 1983, said in an e-mail that the company has “halted the process,” choosing instead to focus on expanding the business without the help of Wall Street.