Business Briefs – March 27, 2018

Arizona Governor Suspends Uber From Autonomous Testing

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s self-driving vehicle testing privileges Monday in the wake of a pedestrian fatality in a Phoenix suburb last week.

Ducey said in a letter to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that video footage of the crash raised concerns about the San Francisco-based company’s ability to safely test its technology in Arizona. He said he expects public safety to be the top priority for those who operate self-driving cars.

The move by the Republican governor marks a major step back from his embrace of self-driving vehicles.

Switzerland Urged to Do More To Fight, Penalize Bribery

BERN, Switzerland (AP) — A group of mostly rich, industrialized countries said Tuesday that Switzerland should do more to prosecute companies and apply tougher penalties for bribery.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also praised the Swiss Attorney General’s office for expanding the number of cases it’s investigating, pointing to a nearly six-fold increase in money laundering and bribery probes from 2011 to 2016.

Expert Says Brexit Campaign Used Data Mined From Facebook

LONDON (AP) — The computer expert who alleges a trove of Facebook data was improperly used to help Donald Trump’s White House bid said Tuesday he strongly believes the information was also used by the Brexit movement that persuaded Britain to quit the European Union.

Chris Wylie told the House of Commons media committee that he believes the breach exceeded the 50 million Facebook users reported earlier. And he said the data compiled by the political consulting business Cambridge Analytica was available to other firms with links to it.

Among the companies that had access to the data was AggregateIQ, a Canadian political consultant that did work for Vote Leave, the official campaign backing Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, Wylie said.