Tag Archives: users

Earlier this month, Google announced that it would kill free Google Workspace accounts that were using the G Suite legacy free edition. As spotted by Ars Technica and following customer backlash, Google has updated its support page and says that it plans to offer more options to existing users. Google Workspace as it exists today is a very different product from its predecessor. Google’s productivity subscription package is now primarily designed for businesses. The company offers… Source link

When Google announced a plan to block digital tracking cookies from its Chrome web browser two years ago, the advertising industry and regulators worried that the proposal would further entrench the search giant’s dominance over online ads. The outcry eventually forced Google to delay its rollout by nearly two years to late 2023. On Tuesday, Google said it was scrapping its old plan and offered a new way to block third-party trackers in Chrome with an online advertising system called Topics…. Source link

Washington, D.C., and two states filed new lawsuits against Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -2.15% Google, accusing it of deceiving consumers by recording their location even after users tried to turn off the company’s tracking. Google falsely told customers that if they opted out of collection of their “Location History” or other settings, Google wouldn’t store the places they went, according to a lawsuit… Source link

Attorneys general in Washington, D.C., Texas, Indiana and Washington state are suing Google for allegedly deceiving consumers to obtain their location data. Driving the news: The lawsuit alleges that Google uses “dark patterns, including repeated nudging, misleading pressure tactics, and evasive and deceptive descriptions of location features and settings, to cause users to provide more and more location data (inadvertently or out of frustration).” Our thought bubble, via Axios’ Ashley Gold:… Source link

Last week, the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Google infringed on five patents held by Sonos, related to creating and controlling speaker groups. The ITC entered an order that would have restricted the importation and sale of a variety of the company’s Nest smart speakers.  Sonos, as one might expect, declared it a total victory because its patents were affirmed as valid, and the ITC agreed that Google had stolen its technology for use in its own products. The company was… Source link

If you ever feel like websites have turned the simple business of rejecting tracking cookies into a labyrinthine task that involves close-reading of multiple dialog boxes, then France’s data protection agency has your back. The watchdog (CNIL) has fined Google €150 million ($170 million) and Facebook €60 million ($68 million) for making it too confusing for users to reject cookies. The companies now have three months to change their ways in France. With Facebook, CNIL notes that in… Source link

Google has issued a warning to Chrome’s more than two billion users amid fears the browser’s forthcoming update will break a number of websites around the world. The tech giant announced the news via its Chromium Bug tracker, the codebase for Chrome, and a solution to the issue is currently nowhere in sight. It’s currently unclear what websites – and how many – are due to be… Source link

As we’re all a bit more mindful of what we share these days, it has forced the likes of Google to be more upfront about what it does and doesn’t know. Location History is supposed to be turned off by default but some other stuff might be being collected. It’s a good idea to check anyway and the best way to do that is through the Google activity area. How to check my Google activity Tracking is actually meant to make internet life easier by knowing what you… Source link

According to a new survey, more users trust Amazon and Google to handle their personal user data and internet browsing activity than Apple, while users overwhelmingly distrust Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. The survey conducted by The Washington Post sampled over 1,000 internet users in the U.S. about how much they trust Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon to “responsibly” handle their user data and browsing activity. Users were polled on… Source link

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. App Annie said global spending across iOS and Google Play is up to $135 billion in 2021, and that figure will likely be higher when its… Source link