A competition legal expert, backed by a powerful litigation fund, is set to mount a multibillion-dollar class action suit against Facebook/Meta for breach of competition law on the basis that it abused its dominance of social networking in the U.K. for several years. If successful, the action would see Facebook having to pay $3.1 billion […]
6 things in cybersecurity we didn’t know last year
The past twelve months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken — it’s just a matter of finding it — and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially towards the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did […]
Can Biden really crack down on tech monopolies?
There is still too much gray area in the rules to enforce antitrust law, but with a few changes to the approach, good intentions may lead to new policy, penalties and prosecution.
Ad exchange OpenX slapped with FTC fine for collecting location data on children
OpenX, an advertising tech company, will pay $2 million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations that the company violated federal children’s privacy law. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the FTC alleges that OpenX violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by […]
UK’s antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to sell Giphy
In a significant push against big tech’s ability to maintain market dominance through sheer buying power, the UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Facebook (now Meta) to reverse its acquisition of animated GIF platform, Giphy — confirming the Financial Times‘ earlier reporting. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 2 investigation cemented its earlier […]
Why Facebook’s angry emoji should interest the US SEC
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must thoroughly investigate Facebook and enforce our laws.
In hearing with Snap, TikTok and YouTube, lawmakers tout new rules to protect kids online
Fallout from revelations around teen mental health on Instagram continues — and not just for Facebook. On Tuesday, policy reps from YouTube, Snap and TikTok faced Congress to talk about kids and online safety, marking the first time the latter two companies appeared in a major tech hearing. The hearing, held by the Senate Subcommittee […]
Snapchat to introduce family safety tools to protect minors using its app
Following moves by major tech platforms to better protect minors using their platforms, Snapchat is preparing to introduce its own set of “family engagement” tools in the coming months. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel teased the planned offering during an interview at the WSJ Tech Live conference this week, where he explained that the new product […]
A massive ‘stalkerware’ leak puts the phone data of thousands at risk
The private phone data of hundreds of thousands of people are at risk. Call records, text messages, photos, browsing history, precise geolocations and call recordings can all be pulled from a person’s phone because of a security issue in widely used consumer-grade spyware. But that’s about as much as we can tell you. TechCrunch repeatedly […]
Biden’s new FTC nominee is a digital privacy advocate critical of Big Tech
President Biden made his latest nomination to the Federal Trade Commission this week, tapping digital privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya to join the agency as it takes a hard look at the tech industry. Bedoya is the founding director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown’s law school and previously served as chief counsel […]