Australia Passes Law to Make Google, Facebook Pay for News
Australia’s law forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news is ready to take effect, though the laws’ architect said it will take time for the digital giants to strike media deals.
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Washington State Accuses Google of Campaign Finance Violations
Google said it wouldn’t run political ads in Washington state after it agreed to settle claims that it violated campaign finance laws. Then dozens more candidates and political committees reported paying Google for political ads.
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Microsoft, EU Publishers Seek Australia-Style News Payments
Microsoft is teaming up with European publishers to push for a system to make big tech platforms pay for news, raising the stakes in the brewing battle over whether Google and Facebook should pay for journalism.
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Privacy Debated in Fight Over Google Chrome Browser History Tracking
Attorneys for Google battled it out with a group of plaintiffs who say the company violated their privacy by storing their web browsing history even though they took a specific step they believed would shield them from being tracked.
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Facebook to Dump Australian News Posts Over Proposed Pay-to-Post Law
In a response to a law that aims to make technology companies pay local news publishers a portion of their advertising revenue, Facebook said it would not allow users in Australia to post or share news content.
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Australia to Amend Laws to Make Google and Facebook Pay
Australia’s government said on Tuesday it will amend draft laws that would make Google and Facebook pay for news to clarify that publishers would be paid in lump sums rather than per click on news article links.
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Ninth Circuit Considers Privacy Settlement Over Google Street View
The Ninth Circuit will likely uphold an award of $13 million against Google over data collected by Street View cars, while a federal judge ruled Thursday that cellphone users can pursue privacy claims related to location tracking through mobile apps.
Read moreLoot Boxes
A federal court in California dismissed, with leave to amend, a putative class action alleging that video game “loot boxes” are illegal “slot machines or devices” under California’s gambling laws, and Google violates consumer protection laws by including video games with loot boxes in its Google Play store.
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Google, Feds Reach $3.8 Million Settlement Over Job Discrimination Claims
A settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Labor on Monday will send back pay and interest to roughly 5,500 job applicants and current employees at Google who were paid less than men or were turned down for software engineering jobs.
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Lawmakers With Bogus Election Claims Lose Google Dollars
No more Google money for you: The world’s most-used search engine delivered bad results Tuesday to lawmakers who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 election.
Read moreGoogle Data
A federal court in California granted final approval of a settlement agreement in class action alleging software glitches made up to 500,000 Google Plus users’ private data accessible to third-party app developers without notice or consent.
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Google Threatens to Pull Search Engine in Australia
Google on Friday threatened to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government went ahead with plans to make tech giants pay for news content.
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Google, French Publishers Sign Copyright News Payment Deal
Google has signed a deal with a group of French publishers paving the way for the internet giant to make digital copyright payments for online news content.
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Google Workers Form New Labor Union, a Tech Industry Rarity
A group of Google engineers announced Monday they have formed a union, creating a rare foothold for the labor movement in the tech industry.
Read moreGoogle Hit Again
Thirty-five states, Puerto Rico, the territory of Guam and the District of Columbia brought a federal antitrust complaint Thursday against Google, a day after Texas led 10 states in a similar suit.
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States Bring Antitrust Suit Over Google’s Grip on Ad Market
A group of 10 states led by Texas filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Wednesday, claiming the tech giant struck an unlawful agreement with Facebook to manipulate advertising auctions.
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EU Takes on Big Tech Again, This Time With Tough Laws
Under new proposed European Union rules, tech giants like Facebook and Google could face massive fines if they repeatedly fail to take down content deemed dangerous and break fair competition practices.
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Google, Amazon Fined $163 Million by French Privacy Watchdog
France’s data privacy watchdog said Thursday it has fined Google $121 million and Amazon $42 million for breaching the country’s rules on advertising cookies.
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US Labor Board Challenges Google Moves Against Activist Employees
Google has been given two weeks to respond to a US labor board complaint accusing the internet giant of using surveillance, interrogation and other tactics to spy on activist employees.
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EU Auditors: Antitrust Probes Too Slow to Curb Tech Giants
The EU’s efforts to rein in the power of big tech companies such as Google and Facebook through antitrust investigations have taken too long, dulling their effectiveness, a report said Thursday.
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