In a case that could impact the business models of major tech companies, Google has been ordered to pay a €2.4 billion fine for using algorithms to favor its own comparison-shopping services over competitors in a breach of antitrust law.
The case by the European Commission was ruled valid by the EU’s General Court but can still be appealed to the EU’s highest court.
A longtime, widely-watched suit that claimed Google used a Safari workaround to override iPhone users’ privacy settings, has been decided on appeal in Google’s favor. The suit tried to establish that representative action could be brought in the UK for data protection violation and loss of control for an estimated 4 million users. But the court determined specific damage/loss must be suffered to claim compensation.
Strict cross-border data transfer rules revealed for Quebec’s Bill 64 privacy law include hefty fines for business non-compliance and may serve as model across Canada. Changes begin in 2022 with most in effect by 2023. The bill also grants consumers private right-of-action, mandates breach notification, and requires companies to conduct privacy impact assessments.
Microsoft has confirmed that Reddit has blocked its Bing search engine from crawling content; Reddit seems to have blocked DuckDuckGo too. Reddit content will still appear in Google search results, but then Google has paid Reddit $60 million to allow it to train its AI models on that content. Reddit says the block has nothing to do with the Google deal: okay.