Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – December 5th
Didi Global to leave US Stock Exchange and move the listing to Hong Kong – 12/3
Didi Global, a Chinese ride-hailing app, announced its plans to remove its listing from the New York Stock Exchange. The listing will move to Hong Kong. The company entered the U. S. market in July. Since then, it has come under scrutiny from the Chinese government and the U. S. regulators.
The company released a statement on Weibo: “Following careful research, the company will immediately start delisting on the New York stock exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong.”
After the company listing on the New York Stock Exchange, China’s internet regulator ordered the removal of Didi’s app from online app stores. The regulator claimed the app illegally collects users’ data. Meanwhile, this Thursday, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced new stricter rules for Chinese firms that list on the American market. The company can be unlisted if it fails to comply with requests for information from regulators.
An audit reveals the U. S. gave $3.7 billion pandemic aid to ineligible businesses – 12/3
A government audit released this Tuesday disclosed the Small Business Administration (the SBA) gave away $3.7 billion of pandemic relief funds to likely ineligible companies.
Hannibal Ware, the Small Business Administration inspector general, stated an “unprecedented amount of fraud” in the funds’ distribution. The audit revealed the SBA did not check the companies’ information against the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system, which it was legally required to do.
When the pandemic started, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program released $210 billion to companies forced to shut down. According to the SBA, it started checking Do Not Pay records as of April this year. Han Nguyen, the SBA’s spokesperson, said in a statement: “We agree with the S.B.A. Office of Inspector General that the Trump administration should have applied this risk management tool, and, therefore, the S.B.A. has done just that under the Biden-Harris administration.”
In 2011, the Treasury set up the Do Not Pay system. It lists people and companies prevented from receiving federal grants, convicted of tax fraud, or people who have died.
The number of H1-B visa immigrant workers at its lowest in a decade – 12/1
Based on the Bloomberg News analysis of the U. S. Department of Labor data, the number of immigrants under H1-B visa in 2021 dropped to its lowest level in a decade.
The program allows for 85.000 visas annually and eases the worker shortages in the technology sector. It is a workforce segment that includes high-skilled immigrant workers in engineering, coding, mathematics, and science fields. It has seen consistent growth until the pandemic.
Compared to the past year, the number of mathematics and engineering workers on H1-B visas fell 12.6%. The H1- B employment cases were down 19% compared to 2019 (or pre-Covid years). Experts attribute the drop to the slower processing of visas during the pandemic. Likewise, the Trump administration imposed an abrupt ban in 2020 on H1-B visas. The Biden administration let the ban lapse at the beginning of this year.
Israeli spyware used to hack U. S. State Department phones – 12/4
In an exclusive report, Reuters reveals at least 9 U.S. State Department employees had their Apple iPhones hacked. The assailants used spyware developed by the NSO Group, an Israeli-based company. The hacks took place over recent months, and the assailants are unknown. The hacks targeted the U. S. State Department officials in Uganda or working on matters connected to the country.
NSO’s spokesperson stated: “If our investigation shall show these actions indeed happened with NSO’s tools, such customer will be terminated permanently and legal actions will take place.” The company also said it will “cooperate with any relevant government authority and present the full information we will have.”
Based on the product manuals, NSO technology can capture encrypted messages and other sensitive information. It can also turn the phones into recording devices once infected. The company claims only intelligence agencies and government law enforcement clients can buy their software. The Israeli Ministry of Defense approves all export licenses for NSO when it sells its products on the international market.
