Natasha Lomas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Meta says it will offer Europeans a free choice to deny tracking
Meta is bowing to legal inevitability in the European Union: It’s just announced it will finally comply with regional privacy regulations by giving users a free choice to deny its behavioral adv
BBC is testing being on Mastodon, says fediverse better fit for public purposes than Twitter or Threads
In another sign of shifting forces in the social media universe, the U.K.’s national public service broadcaster, the BBC, is dipping a toe into the fediverse by setting up its own Mastodon insta
Italy accepts data portability offer from Google to settle antitrust complaint
Italy’s competition authority has settled a probe of Google focused on data portability after accepting commitments from the tech giant that look set to make it easier for users to take their da
Worldcoin’s official launch triggers swift privacy scrutiny in Europe
Worldcoin, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s bid to sew up the market for verifying humanness by convincing enough mobile meatsacks to have their eyeballs scanned in exchanged for crypto tokens (yes, real
EU opens competition probe of Microsoft bundling Teams with Office 365
The European Union has finally announced a formal antitrust investigation of Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The move comes two years after rival workplace comms
Ecosia adds a train travel search tool powered by Omio
Looking to ride the tracks of increasing demand for longer distance train travel that’s being fuelled by climate-concerned consumers seeking to shrink the environmental impact of their trips, tr
Amazon makes bid to settle UK antitrust probe into seller data, Buy Box and Prime
In a move seeking to settle an open antitrust investigation in the U.K., Amazon has offered to limit its use of data on marketplace sellers so its retail business cannot gain an unfair advantage over
Meta firms fined in Australia over ‘Onavo Protect’ consumer protection breach
Remember Onavo? The Israeli mobile market intelligence company that Meta (aka Facebook) bought back in 2013 and used to power a free VPN/data management app which claimed to users it would help protec
Apple and Amazon face UK class action damages suit over price collusion claim
Apple and Amazon are facing a class-action style damages lawsuit in the U.K. alleging they abused their market power by colluding to increase the price of Apple products. The suit, which has been file
Apple’s app tracking triggers statement of objections from French competition authority
Bad news could be brewing for Apple in France, where the national competition authority has issued a statement of objections related to how it tracks iOS users. The watchdog, L’Autorité de la C
Apple targeted in App Store antitrust damages suit that’s seeking $1BN+ for UK developers
A class-action damages claim is being brought against Apple on behalf of U.K.-based developers. The suit, which is seeking a compensation payout that could be as high as £800 million (over $1 billion
Apple warning it could shut FaceTime, iMessage in UK over gov’t surveillance policy adds to growing tech industry discontent
The list of mainstream Internet services that could shut down in the U.K. over security risks attached to government policymaking just got longer: The BBC is reporting Apple has threatened to shutter
TikTok expands research API to Europe and launches ads transparency library
TikTok has finally launched an ads transparency library — starting with data on ads and other commercial content running in Europe but with plans to expand that. Also today it’s announced
Microsoft, Activision give themselves three more months to close $68.7BN mega-merger
Microsoft and Activision have jointly agreed to extend the deadline to complete their mega merger for a further three months in order, they say, to allow time to resolve “remaining regulatory co
Apple and Amazon fined $218M for ‘brand gating’ in Spanish antitrust finding
Spain’s antitrust authority has fined Amazon and Apple a total of €194 million (~$218 million) for unfairly restricting competition around the reselling and marketing of Apple kit and other pr
Sylvera banks $57M to put carbon offsetting on a path to Net Zero
London-based climate intelligence startup Sylvera has closed another chunky funding round — bagging $57 million in Series B funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing inv
UK’s approach to AI safety lacks credibility, report warns
In recent weeks, the U.K. government has been trying to cultivate an image of itself as an international mover and shaker in the nascent field of AI safety — dropping a flashy announcement of an
Meta’s behavioral ads banned in Norway on Facebook and Instagram
Meta has been temporarily banned from running behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram in Norway — unless it obtains users’ consent to the processing. The urgent order of provision
Google’s Bard and other AI chatbots remain under privacy watch in the EU
As we reported earlier, Google’s AI chatbot Bard has finally launched in the European Union. We understand it did so after making some changes to boost transparency and user controls — but
Clibrain joins the generative AI race with Lince, an LLM optimized for Spanish
There is a long list of Large Language Models (LLMs) out in the wild already, from OpenAI’s GPT-4 to Google’s PaLM2 to Meta’s LLaMA, to name three of the more high profile examples.