Facebook hit with US criminal investigation over data-sharing deals March 14, 2019 US prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Facebook over a number of data deals it struck with other major tech firms. A grand jury in New York has ordered two smartphone manufacturers to hand over records, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Read more: Facebook to encrypt more messages [...]
The World Wide Web is 30 years old – what will be the future of the internet? March 14, 2019 The World Wide Web turned 30 years old this week: on 12 March 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to the world’s largest physics laboratory, Cern, that outlined a new way to link, share, and manage information over the internet. As the main way that the vast majority of us access the online world, the [...]
Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp emerge from worst outage in tech giant’s history March 14, 2019 Facebook showed signs of recovery this morning after suffering a partial outage that affected users across the world for more than 14 hours. The outage, believed to be the longest in the social media site’s history, began yesterday afternoon and also affected Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp. Read more: Global outages cripple Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram The [...]
Ray Kelvin held Ted Baker too tight March 14, 2019 Yet another big-name chief executive has stepped down from their position at the helm of a well-known British business. The founder of fashion retail brand Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin, announced last Monday that he was going to be resigning from his position as chief executive, as the firm investigates allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward [...]
Global outages cripple Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram March 13, 2019 Several of Facebook’s most popular social media platforms are suffering partial outages around the world, largely affecting users across the Americas and Europe. Service continues to be disrupted on Facebook’s main app, Messsenger, Instagram and Whatsapp. Users began reporting issues at around 4pm GMT, with full access to the platforms still ongoing. Third-party outage tracker Down Detector said [...]
Hammond calls for competition probe into digital advertising market March 13, 2019 The government will call on the competition regulator to launch an inquiry into the digital advertising sector amid concerns about the dominance of tech giants. Presenting his Spring Statement this afternoon, Chancellor Philip Hammond said he will ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to review the market and ensure Google and Facebook “pay their [...]
EU drops plans for digital tax as pressure builds for global reform March 12, 2019 The EU has scrapped plans to roll out a digital tax on tech giants due to opposition from several member states. Romanian finance minister Eugen Teodorovici today told representatives of EU governments the plan has been axed as no agreement could be reached after months of talks, Reuters reported. Read more: EU digital tax could [...]
WPP appoints Microsoft chief executive Cindy Rose to the board March 12, 2019 Advertising group WPP has appointed Microsoft UK chief executive Cindy Rose to its board as a non-executive director, the company said today. Rose, who has held a string of high-profile jobs in the media and technology sectors, will join the firm from the beginning of April and will serve as a member of the audit [...]
The UK’s competition policy must be fit for a world of tech giants and hidden cartels March 11, 2019 Competition is the oxygen of the capitalist system. From Adam Smith on, there have been warnings of the threats to economic health if competition is restricted by would-be monopolists or cartels. In the UK, the system is policed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It rarely hits the headlines except for occasional controversial cases like [...]
House of Lords calls for tougher rules on tech firms March 9, 2019 A new report from the House of Lords has called upon tech firms such as Facebook and Twitter to improve their "inadequate" responses to privacy breaches and anti-social content. The report, which comes in the wake of the high-profile data breaches such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has also suggested that a digital authority is created to provide laws [...]