Office 365 banned from German schools, Google Docs and iWork also ruled out [U]
World’s most valuable brands: Apple overtakes Google, but now behind Amazon
GDPR fines total €56M in first year as Facebook faces 11 investigations
The stats are in for the first year of GDRP, Europe’s gold-standard data privacy law. GDPR fines totalled €56M, with more than 200,000 investigations, 64,000 of which were upheld.
However, the fines were dominated by a single case, with most ranging in the single-digit thousands …
Google CEO takes side-swipe at Apple ‘selling privacy as a luxury good’
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has taken a side-swipe at Apple, suggesting that the company is effectively selling privacy as a luxury good.
Pichai doesn’t directly name the company, but the reference is clear …
Google undercuts iPhone XR with $399 Pixel 3a, 10x faster next-gen Google Assistant, more
Google’s 2019 I/O developer conference kicked off today and the company introduced a range of new hardware and software. Headlining the keynote were announcements of the new Pixel 3a and 3a XL budget smartphones that start at $350 less than the iPhone XR, the next-gen Google Assistant that will offer 10x faster responses, the new Nest Hub Max, and Android Q news.
France works on Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (GAFA) tax, rest of Europe watches
France is pushing ahead on its own plans for a so-called GAFA tax – one that would impose a 3% tax on tech companies with worldwide revenues of more than €750M ($842M). The tax is named after four of the target companies: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.
Other European countries are in discussions about doing the same across the EU, but have not yet reached agreement on how best to proceed …
UK’s tough new plans on harmful content could see Apple, Google, others, fined 4% of turnover
The UK wants to get tough on ‘harmful content’ within apps, on social networks and on websites – and is consulting on new legislation which could see companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter fined up to 4% of their worldwide turnover if they don’t act quickly to remove it.
Government minister Jeremy Wright said that “the era of self-regulation for online companies is over” …
Facebook, Google, and Twitter falling further behind on addressing fake news – European Commission
With just three months before both national and European Parliament elections, three large tech companies are falling further behind in their promises to tackle the threat posed by fake news …
Apple pulls Google’s enterprise certificate, breaking internal betas & employee apps
Update #2: Google’s access to enterprise certificates has been restored.
Update: Apple says it is working with Google to “reinstate their enterprise certificates very quickly.”
Following its decision to block Facebook from using enterprise certificates yesterday, Apple today has taken similar action against Google. This comes after Google, like Facebook, was found to be using Apple’s enterprise certificates to distribute its data collection app Screenwise.
Facebook negotiating with Apple to restore enterprise apps after abuse, Google accused of using similar tactics to collect user data [U]
Hot on the heels of Apple blocking Facebook from being able to use its internal iOS apps, Google has also been accused of a similar act, sidestepping the App Store to have users download a certificate to collect user data.
Facebook, ironically, does better than Apple and Google at complying with GDPR requests
GDPR regulations give European citizens a legal right to see all the personal data held on them, among other rights. But a tech writer requesting data from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google found that the data isn’t as easy to understand as it should be …
Japan considering applying ‘secrecy of communications’ rules on tech giants like Apple and Google
A Japanese communications panel said on Monday that the country should consider legal action to begin imposing domestic-level rules on tech giants not based in Japan, such as Apple, Facebook ,and Google.
France will impose new GAFA tech tax on Apple and Google worth $570 million annually
France is set to impose a sweeping new law starting January 1 which is set to raise as much as 500 million euros in 2019 alone.
The tax, dubbed GAFA for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, is targeted towards high-profit internet tech giants who generally pay a lower effective tax rate than other corporations, reports AFP News.
Apple and Google the only two companies to make Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list every year
Apple and Google have once again made Glassdoor’s list of the 100 best places to work – the only two companies to do so in every one of the 11 years the employee-driven rankings have been collated.
They are, however, ranked very differently this year …
Google LDAP login on macOS? It could be coming soon
Earlier in October, Google announced Cloud Identity for partners and customers. One of the features of Cloud Identity I was most excited about was the cloud LDAP feature that is part of this service. LDAP is an open source directory protocol that a lot of enterprise services support. Google is heavily investing in its cloud identity service. They expect by 2021, more than 50% of all enterprises will adopt an “all in cloud strategy.” Could Google LDAP login on macOS become a reality in the future?
UK High Court blocks $1.3B class action claim against Google by iPhone users
The UK High Court has blocked a £1B ($1.3B) class action claim filed against Google on behalf of iPhone users. The lawsuit resulted from the so-called ‘Safari bypass,’ where Google continued to install cookies on iPhones despite this being blocked in the browser settings …
Google reportedly paying Apple $9 billion to remain default search engine in Safari on iOS
As it’s been learned over the years, Google pays Apple to remain the default search engine in Safari on iOS. While neither company publicly speaks on the agreement, analysts believe payments are made in the billions.
Europe’s controversial copyright law approved, could make meme images illegal
Europe’s controversial Copyright Directive has been approved after a previous version was rejected back in July.
Although intended to protect the rights of copyright owners, it’s likely to prove a headache for both Google’s search engine and its YouTube video platform …
Tech regulation is coming, says vice-chair of Senate Intelligence Committee
The vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee has suggested that regulation of the tech industry is now inevitable.
Sen. Mark Warner’s remarks were made during and after the testimony of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to the committee regarding their failure to prevent state-sponsored interference in the 2016 presidential election and their planned countermeasures in the run-up to the midterms …
Senate Intelligence Committee to grill Facebook and Twitter on election interference countermeasures
Update: Jack Dorsey is live-tweeting his opening statement as he gives it …
Facebook’s COO and Twitter’s CEO will be appearing before Congress today to defend their failure to prevent Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and to explain what they are doing to prevent state-sponsored interference in the November midterms.
Google was also asked to appear, but it seems unlikely to do so …
Google security researcher says Apple should pay $2.5M to charity for his iOS bug reports
A security researcher employed by Google has suggested that Apple should pay almost $2.5M to charity in return for reporting the iOS bugs he has discovered …
Gmail iOS app now uses AI to offer option of notifications only for important emails
My iPhone feels like a much calmer device since I went on a notifications diet, but if you can’t switch off email alerts because you need to know when important ones arrive, Google thinks it may have the solution …
Hands-on: Google Pixel 2 XL versus iPhone X multitasking [Video]
I recently got my hands on a Google Pixel 2 XL, primarily because I’ve long planned on migrating my business line from Google Voice to a standalone phone, and figured an Android phone would give me a good opportunity to catch me up on the platform’s features. As you may have heard, the latest developer beta for Android was just released, called Android P, and Google makes it super easy to enroll and install the beta on a select few Android phones.
One of the things that I found interesting about Android P is its updated multitasking interface. The interface works similarly to the iPhone X, in that swipe gestures can be used to invoke the app switcher. Although Android P is still in beta, I wanted to showcase how some of the Pixel XL 2’s multitasking features stack up against the iPhone X. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for more.
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Google makes it easier to delete the search, browsing and viewing history it keeps on you
Google is making it easier to see the search, browsing and YouTube viewing history it keeps on you, to delete any items you don’t want included, and to stop the company from logging your activity in future …