Retailers selling semiautomatic weapons face a choice: Stop selling guns or lose access to a tech giant’s e-commerce software
Rifles for sale at a Virginia store. By Jay Greene Jay Greene Reporter focused on technology coverage in the Pacific Northwest Email Bio Follow May 30 at 8:00 AM SAN FRANCISCO — On its website, Salesforce.com touts retailer Camping World as a leading customer of its business software, highlighting its use of products to help sales staff move product. A Camping World executive is even quoted calling Salesforce’s software “magic.
The change in Salesforce’s acceptable-use policy shows how a technology giant that is mostly unknown to the public is trying to influence what retailers in America sell and alter the dynamics of a charged social issue. While Salesforce is hardly a household name, it is a dominant provider of software and services that help businesses manage their customers. With roughly 40,000 employees and a market value of nearly $120 billion, it has become a behemoth in San Francisco.
Salesforce’s new policy bars customers that sell a range of firearms — including automatic and semiautomatic — from using its e-commerce technology. The policy also precludes customers from selling some firearm parts, such as “magazines capable of accepting more than 10 rounds” and “multi-burst trigger devices.”
When tech giants enter the broader debate, the consequences are magnified because of the critical services they provide behind the scenes to customers. Consumers often don’t realize they’re interacting with other companies when they place an item in their shopping cart or chat with a customer service representative. But Salesforce and other big tech companies wield significant influence because of that reliance on their software.
The company hired an executive in December to run its new Office of Ethical and Humane Use to guide development and sales of its products. It’s unclear whether the new executive helped develop the firearm policy.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
10 Small Business Apps, Services And Tech Platforms Every Entrepreneur Should Know AboutThere are a few apps, services and technologies – about ten categories in all – that are critical for small businesses in 2019. Here they are.
Read more »
Tech giant Lenovo says it's 'well-prepared' if the US slaps more tariffs on ChinaPresident Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods — but Chinese PC-maker Lenovo is prepared to shift its production if that happens, says its CFO Wai Ming.
Read more »
Man admits scamming Apple out of nearly 1,500 iPhones by sending in broken fakesThe alleged fraud cost the tech giant some $900,000.
Read more »
Service Is The Next Battlefield In Shipping Wars As Tech Firms Announce New PartnershipsSoftware firm Zendesk is partnering with other tech firms to let retailers access data that will help them do a better job of answering customer questions and solving problems.
Read more »
Best Pre-Memorial Day Deals On TechAlthough most people associate Memorial Day deals with home and outdoor retail, major tech retailers have already released major deals on must-have electronics and appliances, including Best Buy, Walmart and eBay.
Read more »
Forget Warren Buffett: This fund manager has walloped the stock market over the past decadeThe time you spend relearning all the old Buffett lessons is time you are not learning from other great investors. Like this fund manager -- who has walloped the stock market over the past decade.
Read more »
Here are all the major US tech companies blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall'Although Huawei has only recently been banned in the US, China has long blocked major US tech companies like Facebook and Google from operating there.
Read more »
Analysis | The Technology 202: Republicans make alleged conservative bias top priority at election security hearingAnalysis: Republicans make alleged conservative bias top priority at election security hearing
Read more »
Trump’s Huawei ban — and the risk of retaliation — threatens the global tech industryThe consequences of the Trump administration’s decision to blacklist Huawei could soon be felt by companies and consumers on both sides of the trade war. If China retaliates, an intricate supply chain built over decades could break under the strain.
Read more »
Futures tumble on fears of possible U.S.-China tech cold warU.S. stock index futures slid on Thursday, as investors worried that the U.S.-Ch...
Read more »
First satellites for Musk's Starlink internet venture launched into orbitSpaceX, the private rocket company of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched...
Read more »