Epic’s legal battle with Apple has hit a roadblock in the UK. Despite a mixed ruling on Epic’s right to sue Google, Justice Roth has ruled that a lawsuit against Apple doesn’t reach the UK court’s jurisdiction.
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Apple and Google have both welcomed two executive orders on immigration signed by President Biden on his first day in office.
Biden wasted no time yesterday in getting down to work, signing no fewer than 17 executive orders. Many of these reversed decisions taken by Trump during his time in office, two of them concerning immigration …
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Two weeks ago, a report from Fast Company highlighted that Google had suspiciously not updated the vast majority of its iOS apps since December 7, a day before Apple required developers to provide a privacy report for every app available on the App Store. Following that report, Google quickly fired back and said it would start updating its iOS apps with the privacy labels as soon as that same week, the week of January 4.
Two weeks later, Google still hasn’t updated the vast majority of its iOS applications with these privacy labels, including its popular apps such as Gmail and YouTube. Even if Google has no mal-intent, this scattershot approach is leaving users puzzled and concerned.
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Earlier today, it was reported that Google hasn’t updated any of its iOS apps since December 7, a day before Apple required developers to provide a privacy report for every app available on the App Store. However, Google has now said it will update its iOS apps with privacy details beginning this week.
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Apple officially rolled out its new App Privacy labels on the App Store last month, requiring developers to provide detailed privacy information about what data is collected from users. Interestingly, Fast Company has spotted that Google has not updated any of its iOS applications since the new App Privacy details became mandatory.
Update: Google says it will add these privacy labels as soon as this week.
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Business Insider has an interesting look at the battle for web privacy — and how Apple is effectively keeping Google’s data-grabbing ambitions in check across the web as a whole.
New web standards are agreed by the World Wide Web Consortium, also known as the W3C. In theory, each member organization gets one vote, but the site’s Shona Ghosh argues that the reality is somewhat different…
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Speculation about plans for an Apple search engine to compete with Google has been around for many years now, ever since the company was first seen to be using its own web crawler back in 2014. Apple confirmed the existence of the Applebot crawler in 2015.
A report in the Financial Times claims that Apple is now ‘stepping up’ efforts to create its own search engine as its lucrative deal with Google comes under threat …
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Google today held a virtual event to announce its newest products, including Pixel 5 and 4a with 5G network support, a redesigned Chromecast with Google TV, a Nest Audio speaker, changes to the Android TV, and more. Read on as we highlight Google’s main announcements to keep you updated on the latest tech news.
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The CDC has shared a new document today that covers some of the minimum as well as preferred criteria for digital contact tracing apps. No surprise here but Apple and Google’s exposure notification system lines up with many of the “preferred” criteria elements and looks like it will offer a good choice for local health authorities as they develop apps and start to release them this month.
Apple and Google announced their partnership two weeks ago to develop contract-tracing via Bluetooth in iOS and Android. Last week we shared details about how it will work and roll out, and today we’ve got answers to frequently asked questions about COVID-19 contact tracing for iOS and Android as well as updates on the Bluetooth and cryptography specifications.
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Tim Cook held talks with European Commissioner Thierry Breton yesterday regarding the upcoming contact tracing frameworks, that Apple and Google are jointly collaborating on. The companies announced a privacy-preserving API that allows devices to be notified when another user’s device who reports positive for COVID-19 was in close proximity, based on Bluetooth, without sharing the identities of said user.
However, some governments want more data like location information and user identification. Breton said that tech companies should do everything possible to develop solutions for the national use cases, but did not mention specific cases. As reported by iGeneration, Cook also announced a new date for the rollout of the contact tracing API.
If there’s one thing that’s become abundantly clear since Apple and Google’s API partnership, it’s that the coronavirus contact tracing privacy protections need to be spelled out in terms that non-technical people (even POTUS) can understand.
The two companies have gone to pains to explain that privacy was top priority in the design of the application programming interface, but mainstream media reports and conversations with non-techy friends have made it obvious that many don’t understand why apps that use this can be trusted …
Last week Apple and Google announced a group effort to introduce a single contact-tracing system that works with both iOS and Android. The development is the latest in an ongoing effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.
The concept is simple — at least as far as contact-tracing systems go. iPhones already use Bluetooth for all sorts of features like AirDrop and streaming music to AirPods. Starting in mid-May, Bluetooth will also be used as a tool to help detect exposure to COVID-19 before symptoms are even present.
Apple and Google announced a collaboration to release a COVID-19 contact tracing API at the end of last week. It will enable health departments around the country to release apps to track and contain the pandemic but there are still privacy and security concerns even though Apple and Google have described how the approach will work anonymously via Bluetooth as well as questions about how it will all roll out to users. Here are a couple of ways we could see health departments across the US implement Apple and Google’s contact tracing API in iOS and Android apps to move us closer to reopening society (or at least portions of it).
The UK’s National Health Service has announced plans to adopt the Apple-Google coronavirus API jointly announced last week, but in a weakened form.
Even without the UK’s planned compromise, the idea of this type of contact tracing has come under criticism from a University of Cambridge computing professor …
The European Commission has indicated that it may have to take far tougher antitrust action against tech giants, as fining them and giving them time to make changes may not be adequate…
We’ve known since the spring of last year that Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart speakers can eavesdrop on owners, and even phish them via voice. However, new research shows that new malicious apps with these capabilities continue to be approved by both companies.
The two vulnerabilities, demonstrated in videos below, occur because both companies make their speakers smarter by allowing third-party developers to create apps or “skills” for them. Apple’s HomePod is safe because the company doesn’t allow this type of third-party access…
One of the unique selling points for the Pixel smartphone lineup over the last few years has been free unlimited storage of original quality pictures with Google Photos. However, that changed with the Pixel 4 that was announced this week which won’t see that benefit. In an ironic twist, it appears that iPhones will have access to free unlimited storage of original quality photos with Google’s service due to a format loophole.
Google announced its newest products at an event in NYC today including its new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones. The Pixel line has been known for its great camera systems so many have been eager to see how Google’s latest compares to the fantastic camera Apple launched with the iPhone 11 lineup. Follow along for a look at how the two cameras compare in some real-world shots.
During its Made by Google event today in NYC, Google announced its latest hardware products. The new lineup includes a new iPhone competitor, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones, AirPods competitor, the second-gen Pixel Buds, a brand new MacBook challenger, the Pixelbook Go, and more. This year, Google’s new products have been highly leaked ahead of time and our sister-site 9to5Google has been reporting all the details, including multiple exclusives. Now Google has officially unveiled its latest products and 9to5Google has got all the details live from NYC. Read on for what’s new from Google.
A British iPhone owners’ lawsuit against Google filed in 2017 and which the High Court blocked in 2018 has today been reinstated.
The ‘representative action’ (the UK equivalent of a class action lawsuit) was seeking compensation for every Brit who used an iPhone between June 2011 and February 2012, with the campaign group behind it seeking £500 ($613) per user…
French President Emmanuel Macron has defended France’s decision to impose a 3% tax on the local revenues of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.
The tax was nicknamed a GAFA tax after the initial letters of the main companies targeted…
Apple, Google, and Mozilla are all taking action to block state surveillance of web users through their respective browsers…
The US Justice Department’s antitrust investigation into tech giants may not be the only one faced by Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. A new report says that eight US states are considering separate antitrust actions of their own.
The states are said to have met with the attorney general yesterday…
