Category:

Technology

German regulator acts to halt ‘illegal’ WhatsApp data collection

The regulator in the city-state of Hamburg said that it had opened emergency proceedings against Facebook after WhatsApp earlier this year informed users that they would need to consent to new data terms or stop using the service.

“We have reason to believe that the data sharing policy between WhatsApp and Facebook is being impermissibly enforced due to the lack of voluntary and informed consent,” said Hamburg’s data protection officer Johannes Caspar.

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Insurance startup Clearcover raises $200 million from Eldridge, others at $1 billion valuation

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the importance of physical networks of agents in insurance and helped “insurtech” providers like Clearcover, which uses artificial intelligence and big data to reduce costs and better target customers.

Global investment in the sector jumped 12% to $7.1 billion for 2020, a record high, according to Willis Towers Watson.

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Cybersecurity needs multi-faceted solution, role of tech cos crucial: Microsoft

”It (cybersecurity) is an extraordinarily important issue…I think the recent spate of cybersecurity attacks underscored that even more clearly. I think the solution has to be mult-ifaceted…(as a tech company) we have to ask ourselves how can we change our practices, how can we make our software and our services more secure and what more can we do to help customers around the world,” he said during Raisina Dialogue.

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Fed chair says cyberattacks main risk to US economy

Powell stressed that the Federal Reserve was considering different types of scenarios: “There are scenarios in which a large payment utility, for example, breaks down and the payment system can’t work. Payments can’t be completed. There are scenarios in which a large financial institution would lose the ability to track the payments that it’s making and things like that,” he said.

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China imposes $2.8 bn penalty on Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group in monopoly probe

The company founded by billionaire Jack Ma used its platform rules and technical methods like data and algorithms “to maintain and strengthen its own market power and obtain improper competitive advantage,” the investigation concluded.

Alibaba’s practice of imposing a “pick one from two” choice on merchants “shuts out and restricts competition“ in the domestic online retail market, according to the statement.

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UK launches new watchdog to keep tech giants in check

“Today is a major milestone in the path to creating the world’s most competitive online markets, with consumers, entrepreneurs and content publishers at their heart,” said UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden.

“The Digital Markets Unit has launched and I’ve asked it to begin by looking at the relationships between platforms and content providers, and platforms and digital advertisers. This will pave the way for the development of new digital services and lower prices, give consumers more choice and control over their data, and support our news industry, which is vital to freedom of expression and our democratic values,” he said.

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As U.S. cities embrace tech, cyberattacks pose real-world risks

“Digital transformation has a soft underbelly, which is digital risk,” said Grant Geyer, chief product officer of Claroty, an industrial cybersecurity firm headquartered in New York.

“The same connections that enabled new emerging technologies to help the world also provide the perfect venue for cyber criminals and nation-state-sponsored actors to conduct malfeasance, not just in the cyber world but (also) in the physical world,” he said in a phone interview.

That means it is not only private digital information which could be at stake, but also the water people drink, the energy they use and even their lives.

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