In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and science news:

  • iPhone assembler Foxconn may invest $7B in US display plant 
  • Burt’s Bees cabin rebuilt in Durham
  • US fights Microsoft’s bid to tell users when feds take data 
  • Yahoo’s 4Q shows modest strides amid security breach fallout
  • Sprint is buying a 33 percent stake in Tidal
  • 1 in 4 US men have cancer-linked HPV genital infections 

The details:

  • iPhone assembler Foxconn may invest $7B in US display plant

The Taiwanese company that assembles Apple’s iPhones and other electronics is considering investing $7 billion in a U.S. factory to produce display panels that would create as many as 50,000 jobs.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou discussed the potential expansion Sunday during a company meeting in Taiwan. His comments were broadcast by Taiwanese media.

Foxconn, founded by Gou in 1974, assembles smartphones and other devices for Apple, Sony, Blackberry and other brands. Most of its operations are in mainland China, where its vast factories employ more than 1 million people.

Little-known to consumers, Gou’s company raised its global profile with its purchase last year of Japan’s Sharp Corp., which is decades older than Foxconn but was struggling financially.

A Foxconn partner, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, revealed the company was considering a $7 billion investment in the United States after a December meeting with then-President-elect Donald Trump.

Gou said a decision would depend on factors including whether a state where the factory might be built would be willing to provide low-cost land or power. He said if the plant is built, it would work with Sharp.

“If American state governments were willing to provide these terms and we calculate it is cheaper than shipping from China or Japan, why shouldn’t Sharp build a factory in the United States?” Gou said.

He said investment would “exceed $7 billion” and the facility, if built, would employ 30,000 to 50,000 people. He said Pennsylvania is a leading candidate but Foxconn is in discussions with other states, too.

  • Burt’s Bees cabin rebuilt in Durham

The cabin that once belong to Burt’s Bees founder Burt Shavitz has been rebuilt at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, The News & Observer reports.

For details, see:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/#storylink=cpy

  • US fights Microsoft’s bid to tell users when feds take data

The U.S. Justice Department asked a judge Monday to throw out a lawsuit from Microsoft and keep a law that prohibits technology companies from telling customers when the government demands their electronic data.

Microsoft says its customers have a constitutional right to know when the government collects their private information during criminal investigations. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act compels companies to divulge the data and keep the move secret, violating the company’s First Amendment right to speak with its customers, according to its complaint filed last year.

“People need to get notice when the government comes knocking at the door to seize all that stuff that historically would have been stored in a file cabinet,” Microsoft lawyer Stephen Rummage told U.S. District Judge James Robart.

Companies including Apple, Twitter and Amazon as well as media outlets such as The Associated Press, the Seattle Times and Washington Post filed court briefs supporting Microsoft.

In its filing, Apple said it received more than 1,000 secret warrants from law enforcement agencies for iCloud data during the last six months of 2015. Microsoft said the government made 2,576 demands for data over an 18-month period before April 2016, the most recent numbers available, and about 68 percent of those had no end date.

Eric Soskin, a Justice Department lawyer, said the federal government has an interest in keeping criminal investigations confidential and customers often eventually learn about the data demands when charges are filed.

  • Yahoo’s 4Q shows modest strides amid security breach fallout

Yahoo’s financial performance improved slightly during the fourth quarter while the company dealt with the fallout from massive security breaches that have jeopardized the $4.8 billion sale of its internet operations to Verizon Communications.

The fourth-quarter report released Monday provided the latest snapshot of a shrinking company that has been steadily losing ground in the digital advertising market that generates most of its revenue. Yahoo also disclosed the closure of the Verizon deal will be delayed for up to three months.

Although cost-cutting helped Yahoo bounce back from a loss during the same time in the previous year, the company’s net revenue slipped yet again to extend a downturn that has lasted through most of CEO Marissa Mayer’s four-and-half-year tenure. In a sign of modest progress, Yahoo’s revenue fell 4 percent after subtracting ad commissions, snapping a streak of four consecutive quarters of double-digit declines.

  • Sprint is buying a 33 percent stake in Tidal

Sprint is buying a 33 percent stake of the Tidal, the music streaming service owned by artists like Jay-Z, Madonna and Kanye West.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Tidal has a more than 42.5 million song catalog and 140,000 videos. It’s available in more than 52 countries. The partnership will include Tidal and its artists making exclusive content for Sprint’s new and current customers. Sprint has 45 million retail customers.

Jay-Z and the other artist-owners will continue to run the Tidal service.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will join Tidal’s board.

  • 1 in 4 US men have cancer-linked HPV genital infections

The first national estimate suggests that nearly half of U.S. men have genital infections caused by a sexually transmitted virus and that 1 in 4 has strains linked with several cancers.

Most human papillomavirus infections cause no symptoms and most disappear without treatment. And most adults will get an HPV infection at some point in their lives.

But high-risk HPV can cause cancer in the mouth and upper throat, cervical cancer in women and other cancers. Less harmful strains can cause genital warts.

Vaccines can prevent infections but experts say vaccination rates in pre-teens and young adults are too low. High-risk HPV poses cancer risks to people who are infected and to their sexual partners, who can catch HPV even when the infections are silent.

The study “just underscores that you need to vaccinate boys as well as girls, ” said Debbie Saslow, an HPV specialist at the American Cancer Society.