Cyberlaw

The Australian government's proposed digital competition regime will act as a competition watchdog and impose heavy fines on tech companies that stifle competition and make it difficult for consumers to switch between services.

More than 80 Spanish media companies sued Meta in December 2023 for unfair competition in advertising. The lawsuit said Meta's access to user data on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp gave them an unfair competitive edge in offering personalized ads.

Canadian news outlets, including CBC/Radio-Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, The Toronto Star, and more, are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, accusing the ChatGPT creator of using their articles to train its AI model.

The Competition Bureau argues that the tech company is abusing its dominant position, and called for Google to sell off two of its key ad tech tools in order to restore competition in the market.

Instagram, X, Snapchat, Facebook, and other key players in the social media market will be affected starting at the end of next year, when teenagers younger than 16 will not be allowed to use this kind of online platform. The companies involved will begin testing methods to be used to enforce the ban in January 2025.

Google and Meta have urged the Australian government to wait for a trial for the proposed age-verification systems in their social media bill. The controversial bill proposes stringent age-verification systems that may include biometrics to ban social media for kids under 16.

Businesses in the UK have lost £44 billion due to cyberattacks in the last five years. International insurance intermediary group Howden published a report that found 52% of UK businesses had suffered at least one attack in five years

A US judge has ruled Tesla must face a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging it failed to inform would-be buyers that its cars could brake automatically - without an apparent collision risk. The Elon Musk-owned company did manage to get a few parts removed from the case, though.

The New York Times has alleged that OpenAI accidentally deleted data that could have been used as potential evidence in the ongoing legal battle between the two companies. The publication sued OpenAI in December last year for illegally using its data to train AI models.

The US Department of Justice has found Google to be a monopoly, forcing competitors out of the search market through its control over the Chrome web browser and Android smartphone operating system. The final proposal seeks to force the divesture of Chrome, even Android, to reopen the market.

The FBI and CISA have reported that hackers linked to China have stolen surveillance data from several telecom companies.

A new feature surreptitiously added to iOS 18.1 automatically reboots an iPhone after a set period of inactivity. This feature, dubbed "inactivity reboot," puts the iPhone in a more secure state after it has sat idle for four days, making it almost impossible to crack into, even with sophisticated tools.

Since the Canadian government considers the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. by ByteDance Ltd. an endeavor that poses a national security risk, the business will be disolved. However, while TikTok offices in Canada are shutting down, the mobile app and the web services can still be accessed without restrictions.

Australia has proposed a ban on social media for children under 16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that firms must follow regulations or face fines.

South Korea has imposed a $15 million fine on Meta for collecting user data without permission. Meta gathered information from 980,000 South Korean Facebook users without an agreement and gave it to advertisers.

Since Apple hasn't managed to meet the requirements of the Indonesian law that requires certain smartphones to contain at least 40% locally manufactured parts, sales of the iPhone 16 lineup are not allowed in the country. However, local residents who want to get the iPhone 16 can do so by purchasing them from abroad.

The Video Game History Foundation was recently struck a massive blow when the US Copyright Office shot down its argument that game preservation is a valid reason to bypass DMCA protections. In response, the Video Game History Project called out "lobbying efforts by rightsholder groups" for "holding back progress." The VGHF sought to break copyright protections to allow libraries to digitally distribute out-of-print games.

After escaping a fine of over $1.1 billion, Intel is now free of all the legal trouble connected to the nearly two-decade-long fight with EU regulators, thanks to a decision of the EU Court of Justice. The tech giant had been accused of trying to block AMD by awarding rebates to Lenovo, Dell, HP, and NEC.

With the current change to the privacy policy, X (formerly Twitter) will be allowed to pass on user data to third parties from November 15. To protect yourself against this, you need to take action on your own.

After receiving more than 16,000 complaints, the FTC has taken steps to mitigate the deceptive practices companies have exploited to keep users from canceling subscriptions. The “Click-to-Cancel” policy has arrived to squelch any ambiguity surrounding the status of monetized user accounts.

Google is preparing to block the popular ad blocker uBlock Origin, along with other extensions built on the Manifest V2 framework, from the Chrome browser. This is due to the planned switch to Google's Manifest V3.

Hailing from China, Pyramid Flow is an open-source AI model capable of creating virtual hi-resolution (768p) videos. According to the team behind it, this model can generate a five-second 384p video in less than a minute. The MIT License covers Pyramid Flow, which underwent training on open-source datasets.

Steam recently updated its store checkout page to clarify that gamers are buying licenses for games, instead of the games themselves — along with all the content removal and malarkey that accompany these distribution strategies. GOG sarcastically responded to Steam's new storefront disclaimer, reminding us that GOG's offline installers "cannot be taken away from you."

Turkey has now banned Discord after they denied the authorities' request to share private user information. The court decision was caused by "child sexual abuse and obscenity" suspicions pointing at some users of the platform. The ban comes shortly after Discord was blocked in Russia, but for different reasons.

On October 7, 2024, a significant court ruling was announced in the "Epic Games v. Google" case, which could fundamentally change the app landscape at Android. The ruling compels Google to open its Play Store to third-party providers, paving the way for a more open app market on Android devices for at least three years.

A recent update to the Valve Steamworks documentation revealed the deadline for developers who need to comply with German regulations that require an Age Rating to be displayed. The date is November 15th. The games without a rating by then will no longer be displayed to Steam customers in Germany.

Thanks to a new law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Energy Commission can now impose bidirectional charging in electric vehicles. This would allow them to supply electricity back to the grid, thus enhancing its resiliency and reducing peak demand. However, there is no timeline set for now.

Targeted by a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice for allegedly violating environmental protection and public safety laws, eBay has just won. The listings targeted by this lawsuit include over 340,000 aftermarket products for motor vehicles that could disable emission control systems, as well as large amounts of pesticides.

The bill that would have forced some AI companies to spend time and resources coming up with safety protocols when developing certain AI models has been vetoed by Gavin Newsom. The official argued that this isn't the best approach for protecting against the dangers of AI. However, experts are still working on similar bills.

Nintendo officially announced that it, along with The Pokémon Company, had filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developer behind the smash-hit game, Palworld. The lawsuit comes as a surprise to absolutely no-one, but Pocketpair has feigned ignorance in its response.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has announced an action calling to end what it calls “unfair practices” relating to in-game purchases. It doesn't dance around the issue, either, calling game companies out for their claims that gamers prefer in-game currencies and subtly accusing game developers of manipulating the whims of children for monetary gain.

While European and US users of Facebook and Instagram were allowed to choose for their data not to be used to train AI, Australians didn't have any opt-out options available. As a consequence, all of their public posts since 2007 were used by Meta. For now, Facebook representatives couldn't confirm a future freedom of choice in the matter to Australian users.

If everything goes as planned, Nevada will soon become the first administration to use a generative AI system to process appeals hearings transcripts and issue a recommendation regarding the ruling. However, it should also be taken into account that the final decision (and accountability) will remain in human hands.

The U.S. Commerce Department is now focusing on both AI and cloud computing service providers with a new proposal, which involves requiring additional reporting from these companies. The goal of these new requirements is to ensure the safety of the technologies developed, such as their ability to handle cyberattacks.

The Internet Archive, which hosts millions of websites, pieces of media, and other bits of information, has lost its appeal in a court case between it and major publishers. The case concerns whether the Internet Archive has the right to redistribute or lend digitized versions of over 500,000 books owned by the publishers, which include Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and more.

The Netherlands' Data Protection Association, a nationwide personal data watchdog organization, has issued a fine of around $33.7 million to Clearview AI over a global facial recognition database. They are not the first or only national organization to go after the company. Allegations generally fall along the same lines: that Clearview gathered the photos it has on hand illegally, and has invaded the privacy of those whose likenesses it has on hand.

Brazilian Supreme Court has ordered service providers and app stores to block X (Twitter) within five days after the company failed to name legal representative, a requirement for foreign companies operating within Brazil. The move is another chapter in the continuing row between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, who is accused of helping spread fake news and threats against the justices.

Defended by Elon Musk and feared by the executives of iconic tech companies such as Google, OpenAI, and Meta, California’s antagonistic AI safety bill, SB 1047, is now just one step away from reshaping the tech landscape. After passing the state legislature, the bill is now waiting for Gavin Newsom's decision.

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, has been arrested by French authorities. The detention is allegedly linked to an ongoing investigation into Telegram's operations, which focuses on insufficient content moderation and lack of cooperation with law enforcement agencies. French authorities claim that Durov's inaction allowed many crimes to be committed through Telegram, and the platform has become a hub for organized crime.

Concept designer Antonio De Rosa, known for his high quality conceptual designs of possible Apple products, has received a letter from the tech giant’s legal team, informing him that some of his designs seem “too real”, and requesting a discussion about making certain changes to them. Without revealing specifics, De Rosa has said that discussions with Apple’s team are currently underway.

A man whose wife suffered an allergic reaction while eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs is seemingly unable to sue due to a clause in the terms of service for Disney Plus. The document features a forced arbitration clause. The company is also citing the terms of their website, which was used to purchase tickets to Epcot.

In August of 2024, one of the largest data breaches in history took place, exposing roughly 2.7 billion personal records. The set reportedly contains data on citizens of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

China firms, including state-affiliated institutes, have been getting a steady supply of Nvidia’s AI chips the sale of which have been banned by the United States. A whole economy surrounding the procurement of Nvidia chips has reportedly sprung up in China with smugglers and private companies sourcing Nvidia chips for Chinese buyers.

Internal Nvidia Slack communications obtained by 404 Media revealed that the company's staff working on the Cosmos video foundation model has so far compiled 38.5 million hours of video from various sources, primarily YouTube. Employees highlighted possible copyright concerns, but the execs higher up apparently gave an "umbrella approval" to go ahead and scrape content.

The US Senate has passed the “Kids Online Safety Act” (KOSA) to protect children online. The bill requires large social media, online gaming, and virtual reality sites that act as forums for user-generated content to actively prevent minors under 17 from harm. Safeguards include limits on ads, communications with minors, geolocation, automatic recommendation, and time use.

After years of working on a plan to eliminate third-party cookies, which enable tracking user activity across websites, from the Chrome browser, Google has decided not to go ahead with it, citing adverse effects on its advertising business. Instead, it now plans to give users the choice to opt out of third-party cookies in favour of its new Privacy Sandbox tech.

CheckMag So many people rely on mobile devices of all stripes to keep their data secure. Let’s look at why this is not such a good idea - and the options available to fight back.

In what some security experts are calling the largest password compilation in history, over 9.9 billion passwords were posted on a dark web forum. These passwords were compiled from multiple hacks and leaks, including some that occurred decades ago.

The European Commission is accusing Apple of having violated the rules of the Digital Markets Act, which could potentially result in a fine of over EUR 30 billion for the iPhone manufacturer.

After the European Union, Japan is stepping in by promoting a law that forces both Apple and Google to stop keeping third-party app stores out of their ecosystems. For now, some details are still sketchy, but a fine of 20% of the domestic revenue for the initial violation for a specific service is certain.