Google prepares to launch new tools to limit the use of tracking cookies.
Want to keep up with what’s happening this month in the news? Here is our roundup of the most relevant articles of the month.
GOOGLE PREPARES PRIVACY TOOLS TO RESTRICT TRACKING ON WEB (May 6, 2019) According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is prepared to limit the use of tracking cookies, a tactic designed to strengthen the search giant’s advertising dominance over competitors. “This is clearly a competitive move by Google to outflank competitors as a safer more private search engine, said John Manlove, CEO John Manlove Marketing & Communications. While it may drive more users of the search engine there will clearly be a downside to the marketers who utilize the service. It will remain to be seen how this will affect the overall advertising market, which is an enormous economic engine for Google.”
TEXAS LEGISLATURE NEAR PROPERTY TAX REFORM (May 14, 2019) The Texas Legislature to address property tax reform this session. This is a Republican led initiative lead by Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Senator Paul Bettencourt which would require local municipalities to seek a public vote if property values rise above 3.5% year over year. The current limit is 8%. Property tax is paid by nearly everyone either directly or as a pass-through expense to renters. Recently with the increase in property evaluations by the various county appraisal districts, some commercial properties have seen rises as high as 30% in one year, said John Manlove, CEO John Manlove Marketing and Communications, while homesteads are limited to 10% per year over a period of a few years, at that increase, the tax can become a real burden for property owners especially the large commercial property owners with high vacancy rates.
FCC PREPARING TO RESTRICT ROBOCALLS (May 15, 2019) Federal Communications Commission is preparing to take steps to give the phone companies more latitude in blocking robocalls and has scheduled a June 6 vote on the measure.