Tag: google

  • Google paid Activision Blizzard to stay on Play Store

    Florian Mueller (via Michael Tsai): The world now knows that in January 2020, Google signed a three-year agreement with Activision Blizzard King (“ABK”), “pursuant to which Google agreed to pay ABK approximately $360 million” in order to dissuade Activision Blizzard from creating its own Android app store. Three-hundred and sixty million dollars for not competing. Bad timing.…

  • Brave and DuckDuckGo removing AMP by default

    Michael Tsai: Brave (via Tim Hardwick): Brave is rolling out a new feature called De-AMP, which allows Brave users to bypass Google-hosted AMP pages, and instead visit the content’s publisher directly. AMP harms users’ privacy, security and internet experience, and just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the Web.…

  • Privacy Sandbox on Android

    Google: While we design, build and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ads platform features for at least two years, and we intend to provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes. So it’s being built and tested. Android users will still be subjected to ads tracking for the next two years.

  • Google Search is Dying

    Michael Tsai: I’ve noticed two separate things: If I know the right Reddit or Stack Exchange to search, or if Amazon or Hacker News applies, I get much more useful results than searching Google (or any other general search engine). This avoids SEO spam issues and can surface posts that don’t seem to be accessible…

  • Apple/Google coronavirus API: not one US state is yet using it

    9to5Mac: An analyst of the US contact tracing landscape paints a depressing picture. Not a single US state currently offers an app that uses the Apple/Google coronavirus contact tracing API — and only four states plan to do so. Others have launched GPS-based apps that raise immediate privacy concerns and are unlikely to see significant…

  • Google faces $5 billion lawsuit in US for tracking 'private' internet use

    Reuters: The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion, accusing the Alphabet Inc unit of surreptitiously collecting information about what people view online and where they browse, despite their using what Google calls Incognito mode. According to the complaint filed in the federal court in San Jose, California, Google gathers data through Google Analytics, Google Ad…

  • Google chief: I’d disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

    Leo Kelion reported for BBC News that Google chief: I’d disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home. After being challenged as to whether homeowners should tell guests smart devices – such as a Google Nest speaker or Amazon Echo display – are in use before they enter the building, he concludes that the answer…

  • Apple tells app developers to disclose or remove screen recording code

    Zack Whittaker reported for TechCrunch that Apple is telling app developers to disclose or remove screen recording code. It follows an investigation by TechCrunch that revealed major companies, like Expedia, Hollister and Hotels.com, were using a third-party analytics tool to record every tap and swipe inside the app. We found that none of the apps…

  • Google to pay $40 million for Fossil’s secret smartwatch tech

    Paul Lamkin wrote for Wareable that Google agreed to pay $40 million for Fossil’s secret smartwatch tech. The Fossil Group and Google have exclusively revealed to Wareable that Google will pay Fossil $40 million to buy intellectual property related to a smartwatch technology currently under development. The deal, which will see some of Fossil’s R&D…

  • Google can no longer force Android device makers to include the Play Store in Europe

    The Verge reported that Google will start charging Android device makers a fee for using its apps in Europe. There is one other key change happening here. In the past, Google required that companies building phones or tablets that included the Play Store only build phones and tablets that included the Play Store — they…