We all knew it was coming. Today, the US government’s Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. The company, which is a part of Alphabet, is accused of having an unfair monopoly over search and search-related advertising. In addition, the department disagrees with the terms around Android, the most widely-used mobile operating system, Read more about The Department of Justice sues Google over antitrust concerns | Engadget[…]

After spending years promising Congress that the data it collected from third-party sellers wasn’t used to beef up its private-label products, today Amazon decided to roll out a product meant to do exactly that. The Amazon Shopper Panel, as it’s called, promises to pay Amazon customers that offer intel to the ecommerce giant about where Read more about Amazon’s Stops Pretending and launches anticompetitive New Panel Program[…]

The representatives of producers and importers of consumer electronics (NLdigital, NLconnect, TechniekNederland, FIAR CE and STOBI) have asked Minister Dekker to take a closer look at the current home copying system. The trade associations believe that the protection of copyright through this regulation is increasingly out of step with the technical and economic reality. NLdigital Read more about Trying to change the Dutch home copy tax[…]

British Airways has been fined £20m ($26m) by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a data breach which affected more than 400,000 customers. The breach took place in 2018 and affected both personal and credit card data. The fine is considerably smaller than the £183m that the ICO originally said it intended to issue back Read more about British Airways fined £20m over data breach[…]

On Thursday, Amazon Web Services launched CloudWatch Synthetics Recorder, a Chrome browser extension for recording browser interactions that it copied from the Headless Recorder project created by developer Tim Nolet. It broke no law in doing so – the software is published under the permissive Apache License v2 – and developers expect such open-source projects Read more about Come on, Amazon: If you’re going to copy open-source code for a new product, at least credit the creator – FOSS problems[…]

It took Soraya Bagheri a day to learn that 450 shares of Moderna Inc. had been liquidated in her Robinhood account and that $10,000 in withdrawals were pending. But after alerting the online brokerage to what she believed was a theft in progress, she received a frustrating email. The firm wrote it would investigate and Read more about Robinhood Users Says There’s No One To Call When Accounts Are Hacked[…]

Just as you suspected, Big Tech is dominated by monopolies, a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee found. After more than a year of investigating Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon’s behavior, lawmakers released a 449-page report with their findings on Tuesday, complete with recommendations that the four companies be broken up to make the market more competitive. Read more about Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon Are Monopolies: Antitrust Committee[…]

More than 150 startups and firms in India are working to form an alliance and toying with the idea of launching an app store to cut their reliance on Google, five people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The list of entrepreneurs includes high-profile names, such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma, co-founder and chief executive of Read more about Indian Startups Explore Alliance and Alternative App Store To Fight Google’s Monopoly[…]

Tax records obtained by The New York Times appear to show that President Trump reduced his taxable income by treating his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, as a consultant, then deducting this as a business expense. The Times reports that Trump Organization tax records show between 2010 and 2018, President Trump wrote off as business expenses Read more about Report: Financial records appear to show Ivanka Trump got ‘consulting fees’ to reduce father’s tax bill[…]

A cryptocurrency exchange called KuCoin says it has been cracked, with over $100m of assets misappropriated. The Register last covered KuCoin when it was mentioned by the Bitcoin-burgling cybercrooks who hacked a bunch of prominent Twitter users. The Seychelles-based outfit, founded in 2017, proudly boasts of its venture capital backers who clearly admire its services Read more about Kukooin Crypto exchange cracked, $130m in Bitcoin burgled[…]

President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and in his first year in the White House, according to a report Sunday in The New York Times. Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them Read more about Trump Paid $750 in Income Tax in 2016 and 2017[…]

A judge in Washington has temporarily blocked a Trump administration order banning Apple and Google from offering Chinese-owned app TikTok for download that was set to take effect at 11:59pm on Sunday. US district judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction sought by TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to allow the app to remain available at US Read more about US judge temporarily blocks Trump shakedown order banning TikTok app store downloads[…]

Facebook has temporarily shamed Apple out of taking a 30 percent cut of paid online events organized by small businesses and hosted on Facebook—things like cooking classes, workout sessions, and happy hours. Demand for these kinds of online events has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple says that it has a longstanding policy that digital products Read more about Apple backs down on taking 30% cut of paid online events on Facebook – for a few months[…]

Some makers of smart speakers, video doorbells and other hardware hit roadblocks buying key ads in search results on Amazon; gadgets made by e-commerce giant get edge. From a report: Amazon.com is limiting the ability of some competitors to promote their rival smart speakers, video doorbells and other devices on its dominant e-commerce platform, according Read more about Amazon Restricts How Rival Device Makers Buy Ads on Its Site[…]

Google has decided to shut down the Chrome Web Store payments API permanently after what was supposed to be a temporary closure at the start of the year. In January, the internet advertising biz halted the publication of Chrome apps, extensions, and themes in the Chrome Web Store that were either paid-for or took in-app Read more about Another body for the Google graveyard: Chrome Web Store payments, citing alternatives – unlike Apple. Costs were 5%, also unlike Apple’s 30%.[…]

Leaked documents involving about $2tn of transactions have revealed how some of the world’s biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world. They also show how Russian oligarchs have used banks to avoid sanctions that were supposed to stop them getting their money into the West. It’s the latest in a Read more about All you need to know about FinCEN documents leak[…]

Europe’s top court has decided that the continent’s network neutrality rules will stand, rejecting challenges from the telecoms industry. In a ruling [PDF] on Tuesday, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided that “the requirements to protect internet users’ rights and to treat traffic in a non-discriminatory manner preclude an internet access Read more about Net neutrality lives… in Europe, anyway: Top court supports open internet rules, snubs telcos and ISPs[…]

In late 2016, Nikola Motor Company founder Trevor Milton unveiled a prototype of the Nikola One truck, claiming it “fully functions and works, which is really incredible.” A couple years later, in January 2018, the company showed the Nikola One truck moving rapidly along a two-lane desert highway. But last week, the short-selling investment firm Read more about Nikola Admits Prototype Was Rolling Downhill In Promo Video[…]

Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces a multibillion-dollar lawsuit in the U.K. over claims that YouTube routinely breaks privacy laws by tracking children online. The suit, filed on behalf of more than 5 million British children under 13 and their parents, is being brought by privacy campaigner Duncan McCann and being supported by Foxglove, a tech justice Read more about Google Faces $3 Billion U.K. Suit Over Use of Children’s Data[…]