State attorney general said company secretly tracked users’ movements, searches, voiceprints and facial geometry
Google has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users’ data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.
The agreement settles two lawsuits that covered three products for allegedly violating Texas consumer protection laws.
Continue reading...President Claudia Sheinbaum says lawsuit has been filed after US lawmakers voted on name change
Mexico has sued Google for changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America” for Google Maps users in the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Friday.
“The lawsuit has already been filed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference, without saying where and when it was submitted.
Continue reading...Analysis of online ad data shows parties and affiliated groups spent more than $39m for political ads across Facebook, YouTube and Google search since 28 March
Labor splurged more than $11m across Google and Meta platforms to win votes, far surpassing its opponents – including billionaire Clive Palmer – and outstripping political foes in key seats in the lead-up to polling day.
New data showed the major parties have poured cash into boosting targeted messages to social media users in tightly contested electorates, including marginal seats in Bennelong, Brisbane, Boothby, Blair and Bullwinkel.
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Continue reading...Analysis finds Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft averaged 18.8%, compared with 29.7% US average
The big American tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of paying almost $278bn (£211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.
Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft generated $11tn of revenue and $2.5tn of profits over the past 10 years.
Continue reading...Tech companies could be fined billions if EU finds they have breached the Digital Markets Act
The European Commission has accused the US tech companies Google and Apple of breaking its digital rules, in a landmark action that could escalate transatlantic tension with Donald Trump.
The US president has sought to exert pressure on the EU to back away from tougher regulation of American technology groups, warning that he could retaliate by imposing tariffs on foreign companies.
Continue reading...Former sponsors walk away from 2025 event – while organisers say they do not meet partnership requirements
Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the organisation has said, after the two tech giants ended their official involvement and ditched diversity obligations in the US.
At the 47th annual Mardi Gras parade up Oxford Street next Saturday, a notable absence will be the two tech firms, previously event sponsors.
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Continue reading...Claudia Sheinbaum says US government does not have right to change name of Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America
Mexico will send a letter to Google to question its decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico for users of Google Maps in the US.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said the US government did not have the right to rename the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico, much of which is in international waters.
Continue reading...Tech firm to make change in line with Trump’s executive order, using both names in world outside US and Mexico
Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.
It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump’s executive order on 20 January.
Reuters contributed to this report
Continue reading...Former Trump White House adviser says supplication akin to Japanese surrender to allied forces in September 1945
Steve Bannon, the former Trump White House chief strategist, has described the tech titans gathering at Monday’s inauguration as “supplicants” to Donald Trump making “an official surrender”, akin to the Japanese surrender to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in September 1945.
Bannon, who served as architect of Trump’s 2016 presidential win but later fell out with the president-elect after he criticized his intellect and members of his family, told ABC News in an interview airing Sunday that Trump “broke the oligarchs” who had previously been aligned against him.
Continue reading...Scammers developing sophisticated new methods will always find loopholes to access lucrative markets, experts say
Scammers are finding loopholes in restrictions brought in by Google and Meta to combat fake celebrity scam ads and experts warn they will be hard to stop while Australia remains a lucrative target for cybercriminals.
On Monday, Meta announced it would require businesses targeting financial advertising at Australians to verify themselves, including through the Australian Securities Investment Commission (Asic), to check they hold an Australian financial services licence.
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Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Man dies after balcony fall during police operation
A man is dead after falling from a balcony during negotiations in a Queensland police operation.
I’m proud to announce today that I’m going to join the Libertarian party.
I believe in small government. I believe in the entrepreneurial ability of Australians. Get government out of the way, get government out of their hands. That’s what the Libertarian party stands for. Unfortunately, the Liberal party that I used to be a member of appears to have abandoned all those values.
I was there working on a contract basis for a small period of time. But look, I think the future in this country as a conservative party, to the right of the Liberal party, is with the libertarian.
Continue reading...Court filing comes after landmark ruling in August and judge will consider arguments from both sides next year
The US Department of Justice has proposed a far-reaching overhaul of Google’s structure and business practices, including the sale of its Chrome browser, in a bid to end its monopoly on internet search.
The DoJ proposals follow a landmark court ruling in August in which a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over search services.
Continue reading...Experts say top chief executives are treading a fine line to avoid any backlash in the event of a Trump victory
After the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, America’s business leaders came out strongly in their criticism of Donald Trump. Now – as the Harris campaign brands Trump a “fascist” and Trump threatens retribution against “the enemy within” – there appears to be a conspiracy of silence.
In fact, as the nation heads to the polls in an election that is too close to call, some of America’s most powerful chief executive appear to be cozying up to Trump again.
Continue reading...Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussed
More than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public debate.
Researchers at three NGOs analysed nearly 4,000 registrations at European Commission workshops organised earlier this year to test companies’ compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law to curb anti-competitive behaviour.
Continue reading...State attorney general alleges without providing evidence that Google is manipulating search results, as tech firm says claim ‘totally false’
Missouri’s Republican attorney general has said he is launching an investigation into Google over allegations it was censoring conservative speech, as the tech corporation dismissed the claims as “totally false”.
“I am launching an investigation into Google for censoring conservative speech during the most consequential election in our nation’s history,” Andrew Bailey said in a post on X, without citing any example or evidence for his censorship claim.
Continue reading...The owner of X is just one of many who may prefer Donald Trump to greater regulation under the Democrats
Way back in the 1960s “the personal is political” was a powerful slogan capturing the reality of power dynamics within marriages. Today, an equally meaningful slogan might be that “the technological is political”, to reflect the way that a small number of global corporations have acquired political clout within liberal democracies. If anyone doubted that, then the recent appearance of Elon Musk alongside Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania provided useful confirmation of how technology has moved centre-stage in American politics. Musk may be a manchild with a bad tweeting habit, but he also owns the company that is providing internet connectivity to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield; and his rocket has been chosen by Nasa to be the vehicle to land the next Americans on the moon.
There was a time when the tech industry wasn’t much interested in politics. It didn’t need to be because politics at the time wasn’t interested in it. Accordingly, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grew to their gargantuan proportions in a remarkably permissive political environment. When democratic governments were not being dazzled by the technology, they were asleep at the wheel; and antitrust regulators had been captured by the legalistic doctrine peddled by Robert Bork and his enablers in the University of Chicago Law School – the doctrine that there was little wrong with corporate dominance unless it was harming consumers. The test for harm was price-gouging, and since Google’s and Facebook’s services were “free”, where was the harm, exactly? And though Amazon’s products weren’t free, the company was ruthlessly undercutting competitors’ prices and pandering to customers’ need for next-day delivery. Again: where was the harm in that?
Continue reading...Department of Justice examining ‘structural remedies’ to challenge tech corporation’s internet search monopoly
The US government may ask a judge to force the breakup of Google’s business as it attempts to challenge the tech corporation’s monopoly over the internet search market.
The Department of Justice has filed court papers that say it is considering enforcing “structural remedies” that would prevent Google from using some of its products such as Chrome, Android and Play, which the DoJ argues give the company an advantage over rivals.
Continue reading...With everything from coffee to mining equipment now being delivered by drone, operators are exploring technology to stop connection black spots sending drones dropping from the sky
Jani Talikka was a commercial pilot flying Boeing 717s, but after ordering a drone delivery as a customer, he decided to shift gears.
“I didn’t leave fixed-wing aviation because I disliked it – but drones are cutting edge,” he told Guardian Australia. “It’s rare you get to be a part of something like this at the start.”
Continue reading...PM’s comments raise expectation of levy on Meta and social media firms amid stoush over paying for news content
Social media companies shouldn’t “essentially ride free” on the backs of traditional media, Anthony Albanese has said, when asked about the possibility of a levy after Meta’s decision to not renew media funding deals.
The prime minister’s comments raise expectations Labor will intervene to secure the revenue base of cash-strapped traditional media companies, which have lobbied for help due to losing funding from social media and the government’s intention to ban gambling ads online and apply caps to them on television.
Continue reading...Protesters say recently approved tax-free datacentre will ‘provide nothing except toxic waste and greenhouse gases’
Google’s plans to build a datacentre in Uruguay have angered environmentalists, who say the project will release thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and hazardous waste.
Uruguay’s environmental authorities recently approved the datacentre, which will use air conditioning to cool its servers. The company initially proposed using millions of litres of fresh water to cool its infrastructure, but this caused an outcry in a country that suffered its worst drought since 1950 last year, causing its capital city to run short of drinking water.
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