Google grants €500,000 to regional UK publishers for podcast venture March 21, 2019 Local publishers Reach and JPI Media have secured €500,000 (£433,000) in funding from Google to launch a new podcast project for local news. The grant will help the two regional publishers, which have partnered with podcast platform Entale, to develop the new audio project known as Laudable. Read more: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism secures £800,000 [...]
Data breaches drive losses from fraud up to £1.2bn March 21, 2019 The theft of personal information following data breaches drove an increase in money stolen through fraud to £1.2bn last year. A number of well known companies suffered high profile data breaches in 2018, including Facebook, Google, and British Airways. Read more: Fraud office launches investigation into London Capital & Finance Unauthorised fraud, where the account [...]
Finland to probe Nokia phones over reports they sent data to China March 21, 2019 Data protection authorities in Finland are set to launch an inquiry into Nokia-branded phones following reports the handsets sent data to China. Norwegian media today reported the Nokia 7 Plus model, which is built by Finnish firm HMD, had suffered a data breach that had resulted in data being sent to China. Read more: Nokia [...]
Google hit with €1.5bn EU penalty for ‘killing competition’ with Adsense advertising practices March 20, 2019 Google has been hit with a €1.49bn (£1.28bn) fine for abusing its dominant online advertising market position. Read more: Google Doodle celebrates 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web The European Commission accused the tech giant of preventing rivals from gaining a foothold in the market it loomed over with its Adsense software, thereby denying [...]
Google announces Stadia game streaming platform March 19, 2019 Google has announced a video game streaming service called Stradia as the tech giant attempts to challenge Sony and Microsoft in the $140bn gaming market. Stadia will allow users to play games on their internet browser without having to download any content or buy a new console, Google announced at the Game Developers Conference in [...]
We don’t need to break up big tech to make a better internet – we just need more competition March 19, 2019 Last week saw the release of the government-commissioned Furman Review into digital competition. The commission, chaired by former Obama administration chief economic adviser Jason Furman, found that Google, Amazon, and Facebook don’t face enough competition. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the recent attention on tech giants’ business models by governments across the world. [...]
Advertising Week Europe begins today, so let’s remember that the creative industries are the unsung heroes of the UK economy March 18, 2019 When people think about television, they probably think of the BBC and UK programmes with global appeal, like Downton Abbey and Killing Eve. And even in literature and film, British characters are at the top of any list of the most memorable and loved creations – from James Bond to Harry Potter. Past and present, [...]
Google braced for EU fine over advertising competition breach March 15, 2019 The EU’s competition commission is set to hit Google with another fine following an investigation into its advertising business. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will announce the fine next week following a probe into Google AdSense, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the case. Read more: Google removed 2.3bn ‘bad ads’ last year Google [...]
Pi in the sky: Google Cloud sets new Pi record with 31 trillion digits March 14, 2019 A Google employee has set a new record by calculating the value of the number Pi to more than 31 trillion digits. Emma Haruka Iwao, a developer advocate at the tech firm, beat the previous record of 22 trillion, set in 2016. Read more: IBM's Watson supercomputer launches tie-up with Volkswagen's SEAT The calculation, which [...]
Google removed 2.3bn ‘bad ads’ last year in fight against fake news and fraud March 14, 2019 Google removed 2.3bn ads last year for violating its policies on fraud and misinformation, the company said today. The total number of ads removed, which equates to roughly 75 ads per second, is almost 1bn lower than last year. Read more: Google paid $105m to executives accused of sexual harassment But Google said it had [...]