May 8, 2013 | Mobile, Regulation
Google has discouraged children under the age of 13 from using its upcoming Glass eyewear, citing health reasons. On its website, a new message reads “Don’t let children under 13 use Glass as it could harm developing vision. Glass isn’t for everyone....
Apr 26, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Google has been forced to change the way it displays search results in Europe, amid concerns it might be abusing its dominant market position. The changes come after an EU competition probe, and will see Google adopt a clearer labelling of its own promoted content and...
Apr 23, 2013 | Regulation
German regulators have fined Google for collecting massive amounts of personal data including emails, passwords and photos illegally via its Street View mapping service. Google was fined 145,000 euros (£125,000) for what the country’s data chief called...
Apr 22, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing, Social media
Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has defended his company paying just £6m in UK corporation tax, saying the firm was playing a key role in the UK’s high-tech growth. Listen to an excerpt from the BBC radio interview below: Back in 2011, Google...
Apr 16, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Google’s revised proposals to settle an EC antitrust investigation over its search results has reportedly been accepted by the agency. According to The New York Times, The European Commission is satisfied with the revised proposals submitted by Google last week to...
Apr 15, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Google has submitted a concessions package in its ongoing EU antitrust case, following accusations that the search giant is misusing its dominant position. The search giant first submitted a settlement proposal to the EU Competition Commission (CC) in January this...
Apr 10, 2013 | Mobile, Regulation
Microsoft is leading a consortium of 17 companies to petition a European antitrust investigation into Google’s dominance of mobile Internet usage on smartphones. The complaint describes Google’s Android operating system as a “Trojan horse”, offered...
Apr 9, 2013 | Online advertising, Regulation, Search engine marketing
Finance site MoneySupermarket.com has seen its search ads pulled from Google’s search results due to a ‘lack of transparency’ over its payday loan adverts. Digital news site The Drum reports that Google pulled all paid search ads run by MoneySupermarket.com as...
Apr 9, 2013 | Mobile, Regulation
Google has unveiled a new tool that could block nuisance phone calls, in a similar way to email spam filters. The search giant won a contest run by the US Federal Trade Commission to stop automated telemarketing calls, which are becoming an increasing annoyance....
Apr 3, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Six European regulators have teamed up to bring legal action against Google to try to force the tech giant to overhaul its privacy practices. Data protection authorities from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy agreed on the joint action after...
Apr 3, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Google’s first privacy director, Alma Whitten, is to step down after three years in the role. The position was created following a series of privacy breaches made by the firm, including the company’s Street View cars collecting personal data and Google...
Mar 27, 2013 | Regulation
Domian watchdog ICANN has launched Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), a new service for brands to protect their trademarks against potential infringement, ahead of the entry of multiple generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) into the Internet later this year. The TMCH is a...
Mar 25, 2013 | Regulation
Illegal downloading has little impact on music sales and actually drives consumers to make legal purchases, according to a new study published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. The research looked at the browsing habits of more than 16,000 Europeans,...
Mar 20, 2013 | Regulation
South Korea has been hit by a suspected cyber-attack that has paralysed computer networks at broadcasters and banks. Yesterday, broadcasters KBS, MBC and YTN told police their networks were halted, while two banks, Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup, said their networks were...
Mar 19, 2013 | Facebook marketing, Online advertising, Regulation, Social media
Musicians are buying Facebook likes’ and YouTube viewers and Twitter follows to increase their popularity, according to a new report. US based data monitoring company Next Big Sound claimed that it has a list of artists who they believe are buying statistics to...
Mar 14, 2013 | Regulation, Search engine marketing
Google has been forced to pay £4.6m to US authorities after it collected people’s personal information, including emails, passwords, web histories as it compiled data for its Street View mapping service. The company intercepted the information through home...
Mar 12, 2013 | Regulation
Half of companies have lost a device with important company data on it, causing security implications for over a fifth of organisations, according to new data. The study, from Varonis, found that 57% of employees believe that BYOD puts their personal data at risk as...
Mar 11, 2013 | Mobile, Regulation
In a PR move, a Washington dive bar has become the first establishment to ban Google’s Glass, citing privacy concerns for patrons, ahead of the launch of the augmented reality eyewear later this year. The 5 Point, a Seattle bar, posted a notice on its Facebook...
Mar 8, 2013 | Content marketing, Online advertising, Online video, Regulation
Web and mobile app TVCatchup suffered a setback this week, after the European Court of Justice ruled that broadcasters can block Internet platforms from streaming their output on the web. Following the ruling, TVCatchup insisted that it is “here to stay”...
Mar 7, 2013 | Online advertising, Regulation
Channel 4 has launched ‘Data Baby’, a new experiment that will monitor how an individual web user’s habits are tracked and used by online advertisers. The experiment will look at how technology such as Google’s DoubleClick has become more sophisticated, moving from...
