Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised ads
The business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.
Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads.
Continue reading...Former Superman star Henry Cavill linked to project, and agreement includes film and merchandise plans
Amazon has struck a deal with the high street games chain Games Workshop to create a series based on its hit franchise Warhammer, the science-fiction fantasy miniature war game, potentially featuring the former Superman star Henry Cavill.
The London-listed Games Workshop, which has a £2.7bn market value and runs about 530 stores, has struck a deal with Amazon to develop the company’s intellectual property into film and TV productions as well as sell merchandise.
Continue reading...Founder and former CEO says he could talk about what he thinks led to crash and ‘my own failings’
Sam Bankman-Fried is set to testify before Congress next week about the collapse of FTX, as regulators investigate the cryptocurrency exchange he led until its recent demise.
The US House Committee on Financial Services said in a statement on Friday that the panel would hear from FTX’s newly-appointed CEO, John Ray, and from Bankman-Fried on 13 December.
Continue reading...Hikes set to hit warehouses and online retailers hardest in 2023 as UK government addresses ‘brick v clicks’ tax gap
Amazon’s UK tax bill jump could jump by £29m next year as a result of changes to business rates that are scheduled to hit warehouses and online retailers the hardest.
The online retailer is likely to be among firms facing big tax rises following the chancellor’s autumn statement, according to analysis from the real estate adviser Altus Group.
Continue reading...Sam Bankman-Fried continues to say firm’s downfall can be solely explained by misplaced $8bn
The founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX has written to its former employees apologising for his role in its collapse and continuing to insist its downfall can be solely explained by a misplaced $8bn (£6.7bn).
In the letter, first published by the industry news site CoinDesk, Sam Bankman-Fried wrote: “I deeply regret my oversight failure. In retrospect, I wish that we had done many many things differently … I’m going to do what I can to make it up to you guys – and to the customers – even if that takes the rest of my life.”
Continue reading...Bankruptcy filing says ‘questions arose’ about founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s leadership
The collapsed crypto exchange FTX expects to have more than 1 million individual creditors, the company has said in its first bankruptcy filing, scattered across more than 100 companies in the wider group.
According to the filing at the bankruptcy court in the US state of Delaware, where FTX US is based, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive, stepped down at 4.30am on Friday, “after consultation with his own legal counsel”.
Continue reading...Users adopt Musk’s name after he announces suspension of accounts pretending to be someone else
Elon Musk has banned a US comedian’s Twitter account after taking on users who impersonate him on the platform.
Twitter’s new owner announced an immediate ban on accounts pretending to be someone else without flagging them as parodies. The move resulted in the removal of an “Elon Musk” account held by the comedian Kathy Griffin, who had changed her account name to match that of the Tesla chief executive.
Continue reading...World’s richest person plans revamp of social media platform, asking users if he should bring back Vine
Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 (£17.30) a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform.
The Tesla chief executive is planning changes to Twitter’s Blue subscription service, according to the tech newsletter Platformer, including raising the $4.99 a month fee to $19.99. Users verified by the platform – who carry a blue tick flagging them as an authentic source – would have 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark.
Continue reading...Cities near Foxconn plant draw up plans to isolate migrant workers who are returning to home towns
Cities in central China have hastily drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their home towns from the country’s largest iPhone factory, amid fears they will spread coronavirus after leaving the plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou.
Videos shared on Chinese social media showed people who are allegedly workers at the Foxconn plant climbing over fences and carrying their belongings along a road. It was previously reported that a number of workers had been placed under quarantine because of an outbreak of the disease.
Continue reading...Latest in a series of difficult quarterly earnings reports forced Mark Zuckerberg to defend his virtual reality project
Shares of Meta plummeted on Wednesday after the company announced mixed results in its third-quarter earnings report, alongside billion-dollar losses in the division devoted to its ambitious “metaverse” project.
The Facebook parent company beat analyst predictions for revenue but offered a weak forecast for the upcoming quarter. It posted $27.7bn in revenue for the third quarter, higher than the $27.4bn predicted but 4% less than the same period last year. Its earnings a share, which accounts for expenses, was $1.64 – lower than the $1.89 predicted.
Continue reading...BT customers face £113 rise as providers such as EE and TalkTalk prepare controversial ‘inflation-plus’ mechanism
Broadband bills could surge by as much as £113 next year if a number of the UK’s biggest telecoms firms push ahead with inflation-busting price increases next spring, says consumer watchdog Which?
Many of the country’s main internet providers – including the largest player BT, along with TalkTalk, EE, Plusnet and Vodafone – use a mechanism to increase the cost of bills annually by the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) in January, plus 3.9%.
Continue reading...Lawyers acting for more than 1,600 drivers say they have been wrongly classed as self-employed
More than 1,600 UK drivers working for the ride-hailing app Bolt are seeking compensation for missed holiday and minimum wage payments as they argue they have been wrongly classed as self-employed contractors.
Lawyers for the drivers have written to the government-backed workplace conciliation service Acas, in the first stage of lodging the claim against Bolt.
Continue reading...Move comes as Biden administration outlines plans to boost domestic production of semiconductors
US technology firms that receive government funding will be banned from building “advanced technology facilities” in China for a decade, the Biden administration has announced, as it outlined plans to increase domestic production of semiconductors.
The requirements come under the US government’s near-$53bn (£46bn) plan to scale up manufacturing of semiconductor chips – the “brain” in every electronic device from cars to household appliances – which are predominantly produced in Asia.
Continue reading...Company, which owns sites such as Lookfantastic and Zavvi, blames ‘global macroeconomic conditions’
The online shopping group THG has ended an agreement under which the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had agreed to invest in it, blaming “global macroeconomic conditions”.
The company formerly known as The Hut Group, which owns a range of internet health and beauty retailers, secured $730m (£610m) of new investment from a division of SoftBank to help fund expansion of its technology platform a few months before it listed in London.
Continue reading...Some US firms have announced hiring slowdowns and layoffs in recent weeks amid fears of recession
As top tech companies prepare to release their quarterly earnings reports starting next week, investors are bracing for bad news.
Several US tech companies have announced hiring slowdowns and layoffs in recent weeks, and the difficulties are expected to continue. “It’s not a great time for tech in general,” said Paul Verna, an analyst at Insider Intelligence, a market analysis firm. “There is no question that companies are going to be spending less, cutting back budgets, and maybe implementing hiring freezes. None of that is good news for the next quarter.”
Continue reading...From Europe to India and the US, the revelations have fuelled anger from across the spectrum, from the drivers to politicians
The release of the Uber files has prompted a frenzy of reaction around the world, piling pressure on senior politicians, fuelling calls for a crackdown on corporate lobbying and drawing outrage from groups including traditional taxi drivers.
The fuse was lit with the publication of revelations from a trove of more than 124,000 documents about Uber spanning from 2013 to 2017, leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and international media.
Continue reading...Leak shows how the former Labour minister used his access to pro-Kremlin oligarchs, including some now under sanctions
Even before Uber’s top executives arrived in Davos in January 2016, its bosses were trying to secure invitations to the exclusive party hosted by the billionaire Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska. Famous for its free-flowing vodka, the event was an invitation-only, after-hours fixture of the world economic forum, the annual gathering of corporate leaders and politicians in the Swiss Alps.
Fortunately for Uber, it had hired someone who could pull strings. “Put them on list at door,” ordered Peter Mandelson, according to messages in the Uber files data leak.
Continue reading...A leak of internal documents from inside Uber reveals evidence that the company broke laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied prime ministers and presidents in an effort to break into markets long held by taxi companies
Back when Uber was starting up, barely more than a concept and attempting to break into new cities, it had a playbook. First it would attract drivers to switch to its service from the competition. Then it would encourage customers to try it out by subsidising fares. And then, when it had gained a foothold, it would heap pressure on local regulators to grant them approval to continue operating.
As Johana Bhuiyan tells Michael Safi, the Uber model was spectacularly successful. The company grew from its San Francisco beginnings to be a truly global company in a matter of years. But as it grew, it attracted controversy, and the scandals started to mount up.
Continue reading...MiCA law contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation
The EU has moved to rein in the “wild west” of crypto assets by agreeing a groundbreaking set of rules for the sector.
Representatives from the European parliament and EU states thrashed out an agreement on Thursday that contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation, as well as requiring that crypto firms provide details of the environmental impact of their assets.
Continue reading...Japan’s SoftBank still likely to conduct IPO in New York but could secure secondary listing
The Japanese owner of the British chip designer Arm is reportedly planning to float some of the company’s shares in London, in a sign the government’s efforts to lobby for a UK listing of the Cambridge-based company may have succeeded.
SoftBank, which bought the chip company for $32bn in 2016, is said to be reconsidering earlier plans to only list shares on the US market.
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