After primarily relying on voluntary compliance and education to enforce a shelter-in-place order, San Francisco is now issuing citations to those violating the order's guidelines.

"The last time I was in front of you I predicted there would come a time where we have to cite," San Francisco police chief Bill Scott said at a Friday press conference, according to the San Francisco Examiner. "That time has come, and we have begun citing."

Scott said that a citation was given to a business and "at least one" person within the past 24 hours, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The order directs residents to stay home as much as possible, to only leave for essential needs, and to practice social distancing. It also requires nonessential businesses, which includes nightclubs and dine-in restaurants, to close.

"We understand that not everybody is watching the news," Scott said on Friday. "That's why we are giving the benefit of the doubt."

But, he said, "we have to abide by these public health orders." He said police are warning residents, but will not warn them more than once.

The San Francisco Bay Area is on week 3 of a shelter-in-place order that went into effect on March 17. It was originally set to expire on April 7, but has since been extended to May 3. That extension that could eventually be pushed back even further.

In the region, as well as elsewhere, there have been incidents of residents failing to adapt to the order and remain home, limiting unnecessary trips into public. On the first weekend after the order went into effect, mass outings were observed at parks and beaches as people sought some fresh air following a week spent indoors.

Stricter rules have since been put in place, like the closure of dog parks and playgrounds, and parking areas at some open spaces have been shut down.

There are currently 497 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in San Francisco, with 7 reported deaths.

This week, the world's biggest media union changed its rules about who can work with union talent.

New rules took effect April 1 regarding how SAG-AFTRA will work with agencies and advertisers that have not signed its commercials contract, which covers compensation for union members.

SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) represents about 160,000 actors, musicians, voiceover artists, journalists, and other professionals, according to its website.

An internal memo sent to employees at top PR firm Weber Shandwick on March 12 and obtained by Business Insider details the ways these new rules will affect talent relations moving forward. The full memo is printed below.

These new regulations could have wide-reaching effects on how marketers spend their money. Many agencies and brands that launched in the digital age did not sign the contract, which requires members to use almost exclusively union talent in commercial productions ranging from influencer campaigns to big-budget broadcast ads.

"These are important changes that will have an impact for brands and our industry at large," said a Weber Shandwick spokesperson. "We're taking the necessary steps to ensure we're in full compliance with the new rules, so that we can continue to seamlessly deliver for our clients."

SAG-AFTRA declined to comment beyond a March 16 blog post stating that it had not rolled back any requirements, despite claims from "some in the commercials industry."

These rules represent a new phase in the long-running battle between the union and ad industry

SAG-AFTRA and the agencies that produce commercials have a history of clashes.

Ad, PR, and talent management firms, facing pressure from clients to create content faster and cheaper, reached an agreement with SAG-AFTRA last April after arguing that elements of the union's previous contracts — like holding fees that actors earned each time ads aired — were cost prohibitive.

But the union and agencies still had unresolved issues. 

SAG-AFTRA previously organized strikes and picket lines outside the offices of non-signatories like Droga5 as well as Publicis Groupe's BBH, which tried to withdraw from the commercials contract in 2017. BBH claimed that the union's conditions placed it at a disadvantage because they allowed competitors who hadn't signed the contract to pitch their services to brands at lower rates.

A judge ruled against BBH last year.

According to the memo, SAG-AFTRA compromised on plans to prevent union talent from working with agencies that haven't signed its contract

In 2018, SAG-AFTRA began targeting third-party signatories, or production and talent management companies that have signed the contract and are then hired by non-signatories so the latter can work with union talent on "co-produced" campaigns.

The union revoked the status of the six largest such companies in May 2019, accusing them of serving as front organizations that didn't actually employ anyone but let agencies and brands that hadn't signed the contract bypass union rules.

SAG-AFTRA scored a legal victory by getting these companies to agree to a strict letter of agreement that took effect on Jan 1.

That letter, according to an analysis from law firm Davis & Gilbert, which represents advertising companies like WPP, was designed to get non-union agencies to become signatories by preventing the third-party companies from working with them and thereby cutting off the non-union agencies' access to union talent.

The new rules leave open questions, especially regarding PR and influencer campaigns

According to the memo, the new rules are a result of further negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and unnamed "industry participants" regarding those third-party production and talent management companies that signed the contract, which the memo calls "signatory co-producers" or "SCPs."

The most important changes allow non-union agencies and their clients to participate in certain key activities like choosing actors or influencers, negotiating contracts, hiring production companies, and reviewing scripts — as long as the third-party companies are directly involved and use union talent.

Previously, only union members could participate in those activities.

It's unclear how these rules will apply to the non-traditional campaigns that brands increasingly use — especially those involving celebrities or influencers who are not members of SAG-AFTRA but work with brands and production companies or agencies that are.

As Brian Murphy and Candice Kersh, partners at law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, wrote in a March 8 blog post, "Can you imagine telling Kim Kardashian that your third-party signatory needs to come to her mansion while she is shooting her social video?"

Read the full memo below.

Critical Changes to Working With Talent

Effective April 1, 2020, SAG-AFTRA is changing their rules regarding how non-signatory agencies and brands work with union talent. In December 2019, we alerted you to this change. Since then, industry participants have negotiated roll-backs to the rules concerning the use of Signatory Co-Producers ("SCPs"), which will make it easier for non-signatory agencies to continue to work with SCPs.

As originally proposed, the rules would have made it practically impossible for non-signatories to work with SCPs. The recent roll-backs provide a path forward for using them. That said, the manner in which we collaborate with SCPs must evolve to accommodate the new rules.

Note: As with the original proposal, the new rules do not apply when working for clients that are signatories, unless the client advises that they are unable to list themselves as signatory for union purposes. While uncommon, it does happen from time-to-time for business reasons.

New Framework
At the heart of the rule change is the notion that when non-signatory agencies and brands use an SCP to engage union talent, the SCP must be the employer of talent under the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract, as evidenced by the performance of 10 mandatory talent employer activities.

While this is still the case, SAG-AFTRA has agreed to 3 important changes:

Though the rules have been relaxed, they still require important changes in how we work with SCPs.

Impacts on Process
The good news is that some of these activities are already being performed by SCPs. Others are to be done "in collaboration with [the] client" or simply require "participation" by the SCPs.

For those activities, the rules do not spell out the level of involvement or control SCPs must have to be in compliance, but it does appear that SAG-AFTRA does not expect SCPs to own these activities in their entirety. However, because the rules are ultimately binding on the SCPs (not agencies or advertisers), each SCP may have its own standards as to how much control they will need to achieve compliance for "shared" employer activities. At a minimum, we expect that non-signatory agencies will need to copy their SCP contract on all emails relating to those "shared" talent employer activities. 

As noted above, agencies will need to get in the habit of looping in SCPs as early as possible in projects involving union talent, both by copying their SCP contact by email on all conversations with clients concerning union talent and including them on calls where employment activities are discussed. 

Under the new framework, short turnaround engagements with union talent will be considerably more difficult to coordinate, and it is critical that teams plan in advance.

Also, SCPs should review scripts/storyboards prior to production, and may require copies of videos prior to publication. If pre-publication review is technologically impossible (e.g. livestreams), a substitute process should be agreed with the SVP well in advance of the production day.

Alternative Approaches
While a path forward is available to continue working with SCPs, from time-to-time circumstances may prohibit agencies from working with them (e.g. too many employer activities have taken place prior to SCP involvement and the union will not grant waivers). In those instances, non-signatory agencies will need to collaborate with another agency that is a SAG signatory if they wish to employ union talent. The details of those collaborations such as division of labor and compensation would need to be worked out between the signatory agency and the non-signatory agency, but it should be noted that the new SCP rules do not apply to collaborations between agencies.

Conclusion
Everyone at non-signatory agencies working on union production needs to be aware of the changing landscape and update their processes to comply with the new rules.

We will be offering short training sessions in the weeks ahead to brief client teams on the rules and how to comply. I encourage you to make this mandatory for anyone who works with talent.

Please reach out to your legal contact if you have any questions about these changes.

10 Mandatory Employer Activities

Got more information about this story or another ad industry tip? Contact Patrick Coffee on Signal at (347) 563-7289, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or via Twitter DM @PatrickCoffee. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

The great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt penned an opinion column in defense of the commander of the US Navy aircraft carrier who was relieved of his command on Thursday, Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Tweed Roosevelt, who leads the Theodore Roosevelt Institute at Long Island University, wrote the column published in the New York Times, titled "Captain Crozier Is A Hero." In it, he explains that Crozier "risked" his career and "deserved our deepest gratitude."

The US Navy announced Crozier's dismissal on Thursday, three days after the San Francisco Chronicle published a leaked letter he addressed to Navy leaders. In the four-page letter, Crozier urged a "political solution" and "immediate and decisive action" as his crew dealt with the coronavirus outbreak. Now, 137 sailors of the ship's roughly 4,800 crew members have been diagnosed with the coronavirus as of Friday.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote in his letter. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors."

In removing Crozier during the crew's shift ashore for quarantining, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he did not know how the letter was leaked to the media but noted the captain should not have sent a "blast out" email to 20 or 30 recipients.

"The letter was sent over non-secure, unclassified email even though that ship possesses some of the most sophisticated communications and encryption equipment in the fleet," Modly said Thursday.

Tweed Roosevelt reasoned that Crozier's actions were justified because he "felt he had to act immediately if he was to save his sailors."

"I suppose it is too much to hope that the Navy, if only for its own benefit, will see its way to reverse this unfortunate decision," Roosevelt wrote. "But it is probably too late to save Captain Crozier's career."

Roosevelt wrote that he believed his great-grandfather, who commanded troops during the Spanish-American War in 1898, would have agreed with Crozier. The late Roosevelt dealt with a yellow fever and malaria outbreak within the ranks and wanted to bring his troops home, despite the then-secretary of war's opposition. Theodore then wrote a letter to news organizations, which widely published its contents, prompting the secretary of war to bring the troops to New York.

"In this era when so many seem to place expediency over honor, it is heartening that so many others are showing great courage, some even risking their lives," Roosevelt wrote. "Theodore Roosevelt, in his time, chose the honorable course. Captain Crozier has done the same."

Governments and companies alike are desperately trying to learn what areas the coronavirus may spread to next and how it's already moving through hard-hit zones. 

And different countries are taking varying approaches to that. China, for example, has mandated that its residents download an application that tracks their health status. And in the US, advertisers are supplying the federal government with information to allow it to monitor millions of individuals through their cell phones. 

Now, one company is piloting a system in dozens of countries around the world that could allow officials to quickly monitor the growth of outbreaks and track individuals that have the virus, to learn who else may be at risk.

Such insight would give the government (or another client using the platform) the ability to put protective measures in place or potentially test someone who may not be aware they're at risk — ultimately slowing the progression of the virus. 

NSO Group, the provider of the system, is an Israeli software firm that is perhaps best known for its Pegasus tool, a software that gives clients the ability to infiltrate cell phones and access information such as location or text messages. 

The goal is to stop terrorists and other criminals, but the software has drawn scrutiny after revelations it was used to track journalists and activists. One lawsuit even linked the tool to the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Criticism aside, NSO's products have been used in times of crisis. It helped Brazilian officials, for example, track 51 missing people who were trapped under a mudslide after the Brumadinho Dam collapsed.

The company is now selling governments on the new platform specific to the coronavirus outbreak. And Business Insider got a first-hand look at how the potentially game-changing system works.  

To be sure, the technology firm has no access to any of the data used to power the application. It merely provides the software and clients are responsible for inputting information. 

Government health care databases, for example, combined with location information via cell phones or mobile applications, can give users a granular view into who has the virus, where they are going or have been, if citizens are violating social distancing guidelines, or where the next outbreaks may occur. 

While NSO declined to discuss the details of any of the pilot projects under way, such a system is very possible. Carriers in Italy, Germany, and other countries, for example, are already sharing location data with the governments.  

The tool could be a powerful resource in helping to mitigate the deadly virus that has already claimed the lives of thousands and is estimated to lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths overall. 

Health experts, for example, say individuals who visit locations like supermarkets are at risk if someone with the virus spent 15 minutes or longer there.  

NSO's platform could, theoretically, filter down available data to track the people that were in that establishment at the same time or even hours after (since the virus can live on some surfaces for up to several days). That gives the government or health agency the chance to identify potential cases quickly to mitigate any further spread. 

Or say a person infected with the virus routinely traveled to another area of town that currently has relatively few individuals that have tested positive. Using NSO's system, officials can pinpoint where the coronavirus may spread based on that tracking information.

It could also pull up a confirmed patient's close contacts — family members, coworkers, etc. — so health workers could proactively test them. 

All those examples highlight how helpful the system can be in battling the outbreak. And the extent to which governments or other customers can use it is dependent on what information is inputted — and how often it is updated. 

But privacy advocates are ringing the alarm over just how much data is being compiled and how difficult it could be to turn the dial back to stricter privacy measures once the pandemic subsidies. 

"Even if the data is not held by the company, governments are equally able to misuse the data," Sam Woodhams, digital rights lead at research firm Top10VPN, told Business Insider. "This is particularly significant given that, even when aggregated and anonymised, location data could still be used by governments for highly nefarious means." 

i’ve been at @outline since before it began. editing it was the best job, and with the best team. hire them, give them money, have them write and edit for you: @jeremypgordon @brandyljensen @drewmillard @nkulw @shujaxhaider @rachelmillman

— Leah Finnegan (@leahfinnegan) April 3, 2020

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Glenn Fogel, the CEO of Booking Holdings Inc., announced that he tested positive for coronavirus in a statement this week.

Fogel said he started having a fever and flu-like symptoms early last week and got tested for the novel coronavirus not long after. 

"I am very fortunate in that I only had a mild set of symptoms and can now say that I feel fine. While I feel grateful for myself, of course, I feel terrible for those who are facing much more difficult times at this very moment," Fogel wrote. 

The CEO of the online travel company said on Thursday that he understands why people may not be quick to book travel in light of the outbreak, CNBC reported. 

"You have people that are more concerned about, 'Am I going to have a job?' They're thinking about that a lot more than, 'Am I going to go away in July somewhere or not?'" Fogel told CNBC. 

According to CNBC, Booking Holdings, which operates Priceline.com, Kayak.com, and other travel sites, has suspended all non-essential travel. While some hotel and travel companies have furloughed or fired staff members due to decreased revenue, Booking Holdings is freezing hiring. 

Fogel wrote in his statement that when the pandemic is over, his organization will continue their "mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. Until then, please stay safe."

He urged people to take the coronavirus seriously and practice social distancing. 

"There will be difficult days ahead, and for most of us, things will get worse before they get better — but, I know we will weather the storm," he said.