More Turmoil At WPP; Facebook Suspends 200 Apps

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Turmoil At The Top

More drama at the top of WPP, as shareholders rally against Chairman Roberto Quarta’s reelection after his handling of CEO Martin Sorrell’s exit last month. The concern was sparked by a report from advisory firm Glass Lewis, which said it had “severe reservations” about the board (and thus Quarta) after it refused to publish results of the Sorrell investigation and failed to have a succession plan in place, The Guardian reports. The firm also told investors to reject WPP’s pay report, which gives Sorrell, who made $19 million last year, “good leaver” status without revealing the nature of the impropriety. “Absent further information regarding Sir Martin’s retirement, we believe shareholders are unable to determine the extent to which he should be treated as a ‘good leaver.’” More.

Big Blue Cleanup

Facebook has suspended around 200 apps as it carries out the third-party data privacy audit promised by Mark Zuckerberg following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook has looked into thousands of apps that had accessed large amounts of data before the company updated its privacy policy to restrict the data passed to third-party developers in 2014. If the suspended apps did misuse Facebook data, they will be banned from the platform and listed on a website so Facebook users can check whether they or their friends had installed the service prior to the privacy update. Read the blog post.

On Android’s Tracks

Did Google’s location tracking cost Australians a fortune in data charges? The Australian Competition and Consumer Agency, the country’s watchdog group, is following up on just such a claim by researchers at Oracle. Oracle and Google have been in a long, contentious legal battle over Android’s use of open-source Java software by Oracle. “The more we get into this inquiry the more we realise there are lots of issues (around) competition and privacy,” says agency Chairman Rod Sims. More than 10 million Australians, or almost half the country, own an Android phone, reports the The Daily Telegraph. More. Oracle’s researchers estimate the total data charges in question are as high as $580 million per year, or one gigabyte per device per month.

Bet Your Bottom Dollar

The Supreme Court struck down a 26-year-old federal law prohibiting sports gambling (outside of Nevada) on Monday. The decision will kickstart state legislatures, sports leagues and business like DraftKings and FanDuel, all of which have had sports gambling pieces in place for months awaiting the verdict, reports The Washington Post. It will also undam a surge of advertising budgets. DraftKings and FanDuel were among the biggest online spenders before court cases tied them in knots, and a wave of mobile app-based sports gambling services will join the fray as new brands try to establish themselves in the lucrative market.

But Wait, There’s More!