NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered two state agencies to investigate a media report that Facebook Inc may be accessing far more personal information from smartphone users, including health and other sensitive data, than had previously been known.
The directive to New York’s Department of State and Department of Financial Services came after The Wall Street Journal said testing showed that Facebook collected personal information from other apps on users’ smartphones within seconds of them entering it.
The WSJ reported that several apps share sensitive user data including weight, blood pressure and ovulation status with Facebook. The report said that the company can access data in some cases even when the user is not signed into Facebook or does not have a Facebook account.
In a statement Cuomo called the practice an “outrageous abuse of privacy.” He also called on the relevant federal regulators to become involved.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Shares in Facebook took a short-lived hit after the Wall Street Journal report was published, but closed up 1.2 percent.
In late January Cuomo along with New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an investigation into Apple Inc’s failure to warn consumers about a FaceTime bug that had let iPhones users listen to conversations of others who have not yet accepted a video call.
Facebook is facing a slew of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries over privacy issues, including a U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation into disclosures that Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87 million users with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
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New York’s financial services department does not traditionally supervise social media companies directly, but has waded into digital privacy in the financial sector and could have oversight of some app providers that send user data to Facebook.
In March, it is slated to implement the country’s first cybersecurity rules governing state-regulated financial institutions such as banks, insurers and credit monitors.
Last month, DFS said life insurers could use social media posts in underwriting policies, so long as they did not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sexual orientation or other protected classes.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Katie Paul in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Meredith Mazzilli
Today, the legal industry has become
saturated due to the growing number of law firms springing up on every corner.
This has made it a lot more difficult for smaller legal organizations to
contend with their bigger counterparts and gain the visibility they need to
grow their business.
Subsequently, most law firms are
adopting digital marketing strategies to attract customers and position
themselves above their competitors. However, building the specific online
marketing strategy that would be a perfect fit for your firm takes a lot of
effort and experience.
Search engine algorithms are still
quite opaque, and the dynamic nature of the internet means that marketing strategies
are constantly evolving. How then can a law firm determine the best marketing
technique for themselves?
Below are some expert tips on how to
build a successful marketing strategy for your law firm and attract more
clients:
Increase organic traffic to your
website
The advent of the internet makes it
very easy for individuals to search online for whatever products or services
they require. Therefore, it is important for law firms to employ effective
online marketing strategies that can increase the number of visitors to their
website.
Matt Bowman, [resident of Thrive
Internet Marketing Agency, says videos, content and free ebooks that deliver
value to your target audience can increase traffic to your website and make it
a one-stop shop for all legal information.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is
another great way to increase your firm’s online reputation. Ranking your
website on the first page of a search engine for a relevant keyword can
increase the visibility of your law firm but can be difficult to achieve due to
the ever-changing nature of search engine algorithms. Nonetheless, just like
Chicago lawyer Russell
Knight learned, writing quality articles and
incorporating quality backlinks to your content are some of the ways you can
increase your page rankings.
Additionally, improving your social
media presence is another way to increase the number of visitors to your
website. By regularly posting updates and sharing quality content across
different social media channels, it can motivate followers to check out your
website. According to David Reischer, Esq., a lawyer at LegalAdvice, posting infographics
is a perfect way for law firms to increase traffic to their website.
Build brand credibility
For every prospective client, one of
the criteria for selecting a law firm to engage is how trustworthy and
reputable they are. To adequately portray your firm as trustworthy, having a
modern, optimized website is important.
Your website is typically an online representation
of your firm and once it appears outdated and unattractive, it sends a negative
message to your prospective clients. Therefore, always ensure that your website
is easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, mobile-friendly and has quick
loading time.
Constantly sharing legal information
on niche topics and contributing answers to questions on forums like Quora can
position your firm as a subject-matter expert. Senior legal partner at Miracle
Mile Law Group Steven Isaac Azizi, Esq., also says including client testimonials
on your website is very useful as it not only showcases your quality but
improves your firm’s reputation
Increase brand awareness
As a law firm, it is necessary to
adopt a dynamic marketing approach and evolve with the times if you intend to
remain relevant. As highlighted previously, having a website that’s properly
optimized for mobile devices is critical to achieving widespread recognition.
According to Statista,
of all website traffic generated globally in 2018, more than 50 percent came
from mobile devices; they are now currently accounting for 50 per cent of all
web page visits served globally. Therefore, having a mobile-friendly website is
imperative when creating online awareness for your law firm.
Giving prospective clients the
ability to easily access information about legal issues on their mobile devices
will naturally attract visitors to your website. Also, ensure that all content
on your website is easy to read on a mobile phone at different resolutions.
There are four or five flights a day from Vancouver to Hong Kong
during the summer season. When they land this weekend, passengers will
be met by a sea of protesters staging a three-day occupation of the Hong
Kong airport’s arrivals hall.
The protesters are seeking
international attention as the city enters its tenth straight weekend of
political demonstrations that have, at times, been chaotic and violent.
Airport authorities are taking extra security measures and the Canadian government has raised its travel advisory.
Aside
from monitoring local media and avoiding areas where large protests are
unfolding, there are several issues for Canadians and Ottawa to
consider.
“It’s a perfect storm of domestic tensions
playing into international views on Beijing’s intentions and policies,”
said Paul Evans, a global affairs professor at the University of B.C.
“The dissatisfaction fuelling the protests is, in part, about feelings
about freedom, democracy and Hong Kong’s autonomy. But it is also about
material concerns related to housing, social services and career
prospects.”
The oft-quoted number of Canadian passport holders in
Hong Kong is about 300,000. This is an estimate made in 2011 by the Asia
Pacific Foundation, which, at the time, said it was based on
“conservative assumptions” and that a higher estimate would be over half
a million.
There are concerns that, should the situation spiral
out of control, there would be protection issues for the federal
government to manage. After the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in
June 1989, several thousand Canadians were airlifted out of China. But
the large number of Canadians in Hong Kong would make evacuation and
consular protection much more challenging.
A more immediate issue
is Ottawa’s response to the prospect of protesters fleeing arrest by
Hong Kong authorities and seeking refuge in Canada.
“Vancouver is
already in the global spotlight as a result of the (Huawei executive)
Meng Wanzhou arrest and hearings,” said Evans. “Considering the huge
number of connections between the two cities, managing requests for
political asylum has the potential to put Vancouver in the spotlight in
an even bigger way.”
Despite the advisory, many in Hong Kong
report a sense of order now that they have adjusted and life is
continuing around the protests.
“Local social media is providing
good updates regarding the locations and times of the protests,” said
Eric Li, a professor of marketing at the University of B.C. Okanagan who
is visiting family in Hong Kong and doing some research.
He added
that some visitors might be getting limited information if they are
only relying on official announcements from government channels.
Li
said he feels safe, but “there has been more tension and conflict
between the government and police and citizens as well as businesses.
The pro-(Beijing) camp and protesters are criticizing each other and
there are also (arguments) within families and between friends and
colleagues.”
Li has been trying to be “neutral” as a “personal
choice. As a person who calls Canada ‘home,’ and Hong Kong ‘my
hometown,’ I should say the young protesters are very well-organized and
disciplined. The government should actively engage youth in their
planning rather than excluding them in the process or putting them in an
opposition position.”
“It’s crucial for the Hong Kong government to take a few steps to resolve conflicts through providing open conversation with key stakeholders and young leaders. And protesters should remind themselves the purpose of the (protests) as well as the consequences of their (actions).
(PROREIT) will use some of the proceeds from its latest, and largest,
share offering to help it purchase two office and industrial properties
in Ottawa, and five industrial properties in Halifax for $97.8 million.
(PROREIT) will use some of the proceeds from its latest, and largest, share offering to help it purchase two office and industrial properties in Ottawa, and five industrial properties in Halifax for $97.8 million.
“These
acquisitions provide meaningful increases in our industrial sectors and
expand our presence in Ontario and the strengthening Halifax market,”
president and chief executive officer James Beckerleg told RENX.
PROREIT (PRV-UN-T)
is acquiring a fully occupied boutique office building in Ottawa’s
central business district. It’s surrounded by tourist sites, multiple
restaurants and retail offerings.
PROREIT is also purchasing a
class-A mixed-use, multi-tenant flex industrial property in the west-end
Ottawa suburb of Kanata. It includes an office and a research and lab
facility with what the trust calls exceptional power, air handling and
cooling specifications.
The building is fully leased and its
tenants are in the material sciences, defence, communications and
medical technology fields.
The two Ottawa properties have a
combined gross leasable area of 338,000 square feet and a weighted
average lease term of 6.6 years. Many of the leases include contracted
rent steps.
While the property addresses and additional details
are confidential until the deals close, which is expected this quarter,
Beckerleg said they’re both institutionally owned and have been
maintained to high standards.
The addition of the Ottawa
properties will increase PROREIT’s portfolio exposure to the Ontario
market to 29.1 per cent by gross leasable area and 29.3 per cent by base
rent, making it the REIT’s largest provincial market. It increases the
Ottawa portfolio to approximately 620,000 square feet.
“We entered
the Ottawa market with our $52-million portfolio acquisition of five
office properties last year,” said Beckerleg. “This fits our strategy of
investing in strong markets where we can increase our exposure to both
of these industry sectors.
“Ottawa is seeing significant growth in office and industrial properties.”
PROREIT’s new Halifax acquisitions
PROREIT has a contract to acquire five light industrial buildings with clear heights of between 18 and 24 feet in Halifax’s Burnside Industrial Park. The portfolio represents 358,000 square feet of gross leasable area.
The
buildings are 93 per cent occupied with a weighted average lease term
of 4.1 years. Many of the leases include contractual rent steps.
While
more details won’t be made available until the deals close, which is
expected this quarter, Beckerleg said the condition of the buildings is
similar to its Ottawa office purchases. The five buildings have been
institutionally owned and maintained at a high level.
“The Halifax
industrial market has enjoyed declining vacancies in line with the
expanding Halifax economy,” said Beckerleg. “There has been a marked
increase in institutional interest in the Halifax industrial sector.
“We like this market. Again, it fits our strategy of focusing on mid-size cities with strong investment metrics.”
PROREIT’s $50-million offering
As
part of its funding for the purchases, PROREIT will issue 7.15 million
shares on a bought-deal basis at a price of seven dollars per unit, for
gross proceeds of approximately $50 million, to a syndicate of
underwriters.
PROREIT has also granted the underwriters an
over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 1,072,500 units on
the same terms and conditions, exercisable at any time, in whole or in
part, up to 30 days after the closing of the offering. It’s expected to
close on or about Aug. 16.
“This capital raise, our first since graduating to the TSX,
is the largest in PROREIT’s six-year history,” said Beckerleg. “We
believe listing on the TSX and consolidating our units to trade in the
seven-dollar range has substantially broadened our potential investor
base. We believe the success of this capital raise confirms that.”
The
Ottawa and Halifax acquisitions will be funded with approximately $30.8
million in cash from the offering and approximately $67 million in new
mortgage financing at a weighted average interest rate of 3.4 per cent.
PROREIT intends to use $13 million from the offering to repay debt.
Impact of acquisitions on PROREIT’s portfolio
Upon
completion of the acquisitions, PROREIT will own 91 income-producing
commercial properties representing approximately 4.4 million square feet
of gross leasable area and $625 million of gross book value, with a
weighted average lease term of 5.7 years.
The acquisitions will
also increase PROREIT’s industrial and mixed-use exposure by another
636,726 square feet to more than 2.8 million square feet. That
represents 64 per cent of its total gross leasable area and 46 per cent
of its total base rent.
While PROREIT has no other immediate acquisition plans, Beckerleg said opportunities are always being reviewed.