Fitbit recalls more than a million smartwatches amid burn injuries March 2, 2022 Fitbit has recalled more than a million of its Ionic smartwatches after reports that some users are being burned from overheating batteries. The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said today that Google-backed Fitbit had received at least 115 reports in the United States and 59 from abroad about the issue. “These incidents are very [...]
Tech giants prefer fines to compliance says EU’s Margrethe Vestager February 23, 2022 Some tech giants may prefer to pay a fine rather than comply, said the European Union's antitrust chief, citing Apple's recent battle with the Dutch courts.
Google cracks down on app tracking following Apple’s lead February 16, 2022 Google has announced that it will limit tracking on its Android devices following a growing global privacy crackdown and following Apple’s lead. The tech giant said it wanted to “raise the bar for user privacy” and hopes to curb user data from being shared with third parties. Google said it also planned to eventually phase [...]
Big tech rule book could be agreed as soon as April as EU clamps down on Google and Apple February 15, 2022 Landmark EU rules aimed at curbing the power of tech giants could be agreed between lawmakers and EU countries as soon as April. Although the rules have faced some obstacles, lawmaker Andreas Schwab told Reuters that he is optimistic that an agreement could be reached in record time for a key piece of legislation. Known [...]
Competition watchdog accepts Google privacy changes February 11, 2022 The UK competition watchdog has accepted Google’s changes to its privacy sandbox, following a year-long investigation into the tech giant. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched the inquiry in January 2021 over concerns that Google’s privacy sandbox – a set of new web standards that aim to protect people’s privacy more – would cause [...]
Google Cloud names Helen Kelisky as new UK Managing Director February 9, 2022 Google Cloud announced today that Helen Kelisky is set to become the new Managing Director, United Kingdom and Ireland.
Klarna-backed £1.8bn lawsuit fights Google search engine manipulation February 7, 2022 Swedish price comparison firm PriceRunner said it was suing Alphabet-owned Google for about €2.1bn (£1.8bn), the latest firm to take legal action alleging the search giant manipulated search results.
Google parent Alphabet beats revenue estimates bringing it closer to $2 trillion club February 2, 2022 Google parent Alphabet beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly revenue last night, as businesses spent heavily on online ads to attract customers during the Christmas shopping period. Revenue rose to $75.33bn (£55.69bn) in the fourth quarter from $56.90bn (£42.1bn) a year earlier, well above Wall Street estimates of $72.17bn (£53.35bn), according to IBES data from Refinitiv. [...]
Google invests £748m in Bharti Airtel as tech giant expands in Indian telecoms January 28, 2022 Shares of Bharti Airtel climbed as much as 6.6 per cent today after Alphabet’s Google said it would invest up to $1bn (£748m) in the telecom operator. The investment commits an equity investment of $700m (£524m) worth shares of Airtel, giving the tech giant a 1.28 per cent stake in the company. Google will invest [...]
Google backtracks on cookies plans after ad backlash January 25, 2022 Alphabet Inc's Google announced its second try at enabling advertisers to buy ads based on users' browsing interests without having to rely on what it has described as privacy-invasive tracking cookies.