Apple, Netflix pull out of South by Southwest music and tech festival

Apple Inc and Netflix Inc stated, they are pulling out of the South by Southwest music and tech festival which is scheduled to be held later this month midst China’s coronavirus outbreak. As of Wednesday, the U.S. death toll from coronavirus infections stands at 11 with California Governor Gavin Newsom declaring a state emergency. Earlier…

Alphabet Inc cancels Google I/O midst global coronavirus outbreak

Alphabet Inc has canceled its annual developer event, Google I/O, midst growing concerns on China’s coronavirus which has started spreading outside China. “Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community,” said Alphabet Inc. On Monday, Alphabet had said it…

Illinois users reach $550M settlement with Facebook over illegal collection and storage of biometric data

In a statement Facebook Inc said, it has in principle reached a $550 million settlement related to a lawsuit that claimed the social media giant had illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent. The lawsuit was filed in 2015 with Illinois users dragging Facebook to court for violating the…

Facebook tweaks ads policy, continues to allow political ads in U.S. Presidential 2020 campaign

In a statement, Facebook Inc stated, it has tweaked its approach towards political ads and has introduced limited changes, which includes an option for users to turn off certain ad-targeting tools. Facebook has defied critics’ demands of barring political ads in its platform which often spew out fake news. Facebook, the world’s biggest social network,…

Facebook, Google has up to Nov. 2020 to comply to Australian competition rules

On Thursday, Australia made it lucidly clear to technology giants Facebook Inc and Google Inc that will have to agree and comply to Australia’s new rules, designed to ensure that they do not abuse their market power and damage competition, failing which the government will impose new controls on them. In a statement, Australian Prime…

HubSpot Inc ranked No. 1 in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2020

Midst heightened regulatory scrutiny over Facebook Inc, the social media giant has dropped to the 23rd spot in Glassdoor’s list of “Best Places to Work” in 2020, down from the seventh spot it secured last year. Employees have given Facebook’s senior leadership as well as its work-life balance a relatively lower rating in Glassdoor; The…

Amazon’s cloud business facing antitrust scrutiny from FTC

As per a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter at hand the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has broadened its scrutiny of Amazon.com Inc beyond its retail operations and now includes its cloud-computing business as well. As per the report, U.S. antitrust enforcers have been asking software companies questions pertaining to Amazon Web…

China to pass cryptography law in preparation for launching digital currency

China is treating blockchain technology as a foundational building block for future science and technology innovations. Late on Saturday, in a development that marks China gearing up to launch its own digital currency, the country’s rubber stamp parliament passed a new law on cryptography, reported state media late on Saturday. In 2014, China’s central bank…

Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook’s encryption plans despite concerns on terrorism and child abuse

Clearly FB is eager to leave behind its scandalous past, especially its relation with Cambridge Analytica, and is eager to portray itself as a more secure platform for consumers. In a significant development, Facebook Inc’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg defended his decision to encrypt Facebook’s messaging services despite growing concerns on criminal activity and…

Facebook ramps up its rules for U.S. political advertisers ahead of U.S. presidential elections

With social media increasingly playing a pivotal role during elections, Facebook is ramping up efforts to uncloak U.S. political advertisers. Ahead of the U.S. president elections in November 2020, Facebook Inc has begun tightening its political ad rules in the United States, said the social media giant on Wednesday. The new disclosures rules are applicable…