[ad_1] Google has long said it would not use Fitbit data for targeted ads and that the deal “was about devices, not data.” It pledged to silo Fitbit’s health data to keep it separate from its ad business, and it affirmed that plan to EU regulators last month in an attempt to stave off an […]
Category: antitrust
New York and California are reportedly helping the FTC investigate Amazon
[ad_1] Amazon could soon have another problem on its hands. According to Bloomberg, New York attorney general Letitia James is partnering with her counterpart in California and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the online retailer. Bloomberg reports the three agencies will work together to interview witnesses over the next couple of weeks. We knew the FTC and attorney […]
Engadget Podcast: Big tech goes to Washington
[ad_1] This week on the show, Devindra and Cherlynn chat about Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon’s congressional long-awaited antitrust hearing. Are they too big to compete fairly? Or is the tech industry being overly criticized? (It’s most likely the former.) Also, we dive into Garmin’s lackluster response to its widespread system outage, Quibi’s surprising Emmy […]
Apple’s App Store antitrust questions will be uncomfortable for Valve
[ad_1] Steam went live in 2003, five years before the debut of the App Store. It was Valve’s attempt to streamline the update process for its own games — notably Counter-Strike — with a pipeline for software fixes built directly into the client. Valve made Steam mandatory with the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004, […]
Congress grills Facebook over its acquisitions and feature cloning
[ad_1] Documents from the Hearing on “Online Platforms and Market Power: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google” pic.twitter.com/fF20JB0w9v — House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 29, 2020 Zuckerberg expanded on the idea in another email. “We can likely always just buy any competitive startups. But it’ll be a while before we can buy […]
Google is still answering for its DoubleClick data merger
[ad_1] Pichai confirmed to Demings that as CEO he signed off on the decision to merge the data, saying he reviews all major decisions. DoubleClick’s records of customers browsing the web were combined with Google’s personal information “effectively destroying anonymity on the internet,” said Demings. The difference between Google in 2007 and 2016, Demings said, […]
Big tech CEOs release opening statements before antitrust hearing
[ad_1] All three CEOs also took the time to address antitrust concerns that their companies are far too dominant. For example, Bezos pointed out that Amazon has competition from the likes of Walmart, Target and Costco that offer curbside pickup, which he says gives them a certain advantage. Like Bezos, Pichai made the claim that […]
Rep. Matt Gaetz says Mark Zuckerberg lied to Congress … in 2018
[ad_1] Citing Zuckerberg’s 2018 testimony, Gaetz says that Zuckerberg lied to Congress when he described Facebook as “politically neutral.” He said that a recent report from Project Veritas, the right-wing activist group known for dubious “undercover” investigations, proves the social network unfairly censors conservatives. Project Veritas has a history of hidden camera “stings” that use […]
Big tech antitrust hearing with Apple and Google rescheduled to July 29th
[ad_1] The House Judiciary Committee’s big tech antitrust hearing has a new date after a delay to honor the late Rep. John Lewis. In the wake of an Axios report, the committee has confirmed that the hearing has been rescheduled to July 29th at 12PM Eastern. You’ll likely still find a livestream of the hearing […]
Italy is launching an antitrust investigation into Amazon and Apple
[ad_1] Amazon and Apple are facing more antitrust accusations. This time, Italy is investigating. Authorities want to know whether the two companies agreed to prevent retailers who are not part of Apple’s official program to sell Apple products and Beats headphones, Reuters reports. Officials launched the investigation this week and searched the Italian offices of […]