Italy Fines Apple €98.6 Million Over ATT Rules Limiting App Store Competition

Apple has been fined €98.6 million $116 million by Italy's antitrust authority after finding that the company's App Tracking Transparency ATT privacy framework restricted App Store competition. The Italian Competition Authority Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM said the...

DOJ Proposes Breaking Up Google: Calls for Sale of Chrome Browser

The DOJ proposes tough proposals in its antitrust lawsuit against Google, including selling the Chrome browser, limiting search…...

U.S. Justice Department Sues Apple Over Monopoly and Messaging Security

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ, along with 16 other state and district attorneys general, on Thursday accused Apple of illegally maintaining a monopoly over smartphones, thereby undermining, among other things, the security and privacy of users when messaging non-iPhone users. "Apple wraps...

The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs

Privacy and security are an Apple selling point. But the DOJ’s new antitrust lawsuit argues that Apple selectively embraces privacy and security features in ways that hurt competition—and users...

Google to pay $40m for "deceptive and unfair" location tracking practices

Google is going to pay $39.9 million to Washington State to put to rest a lawsuit about its location tracking practices which has been in play since last year. Google was accused of "misleading consumers" by State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. From the AG press release: Attorney General Bob...

Hidden Anti-Cryptography Provisions in Internet Anti-Trust Bills

Two bills attempting to reduce the power of Internet monopolies are currently being debated in Congress: S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act; and S. 2710, the Open App Markets Act. Reducing the power to tech monopolies would do more to "fix" the Internet than any other single...

Google and Microsoft accused of feeding smaller search engines spam ads

Google and Microsoft appear to have been flooding their smaller search engine rivals with spam ads, to limit the number of higher-value ads that appear on them, according to data viewed by POLITICO. Ads are considered "spam" if they appear in search results but have little to no relevance to the...

Senate Committee passes new antitrust bill aimed at Big Tech companies

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act AICOA, a bill that forbids Big Tech platforms like Apple, Alphabet Google’s parent company, and Amazon from generally behaving in an anti-competitive manner, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee late last week with a 16-6 vote. US Senator Am...

Italy's Antitrust Regulator Fines Google and Apple for "Aggressive" Data Practices

Italy's antitrust regulator has fined both Apple and Google €10 million each for what it calls are "aggressive" data practices and for not providing consumers with clear information on commercial uses of their personal data during the account creation phase. The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza...

Facebook’s Mandatory Data-Sharing Rules for WhatsApp Spark Ire

WhatsApp is asking users to accept a new privacy policy that will share all of their data with Facebook beginning Feb. 8, a move that has users sounding an alarm once again about the privacy of their information in the hands of the social media giant. The Facebook-owned messaging service already...

Ticketmaster Coughs Up $10 Million Fine After Hacking Rival Business

Ticketmaster must pay a hefty $10 million fine after several employees utilized unlawfully obtained passwords to hack a rival company’s computer systems – in attempts to “choke off” its business. The American ticket sales and distribution giant, which is owned by Live Nation, in 2013 hired an...

Ticketmaster To Pay $10 Million Fine For Hacking A Rival Company

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a $10 million fine after being charged with illegally accessing computer systems of a competitor repeatedly between 2013 and 2015 in an attempt to "cut the company off at the knees." A subsidiary of Live Nation, the California-based ticket sales and distribution...

Ticketmaster To Pay $10 Million Fine For Hacking A Rival Company

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a $10 million fine after being charged with illegally accessing computer systems of a competitor repeatedly between 2013 and 2015 in an attempt to "cut the company off at the knees." A subsidiary of Live Nation, the California-based ticket sales and distribution...

48 U.S. States and FTC are suing Facebook for illegal monopolization

The US Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of 48 state attorneys general on Wednesday filed a pair of sweeping antitrust suits against Facebook, alleging that the company abused its power in the marketplace to neutralize competitors through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and...

48 U.S. States and FTC are suing Facebook for illegal monopolization

The US Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of 48 state attorneys general on Wednesday filed a pair of sweeping antitrust suits against Facebook, alleging that the company abused its power in the marketplace to neutralize competitors through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and...

The Security Value of Inefficiency

For decades, we have prized efficiency in our economy. We strive for it. We reward it. In normal times, that's a good thing. Running just at the margins is efficient. A single just-in-time global supply chain is efficient. Consolidation is efficient. And that's all profitable. Inefficiency, on th...

A week in security (February 3 – 9)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at Washington state’s latest efforts in providing better data privacy rights for their residents, and we dove into some of the many questions regarding fintech: What is it? How secure is it? And what are some of the problems in the space? We also detailed...

Google Will Prompt European Android Users to Select Preferred Default Browser

Google announced some major changes for its Android mobile operating system in October after the European Commission hit the company with a record $5 billion antitrust fine for pre-installing its own apps and services on third-party Android phones. The European Commission accused Google of forcin...

Google Will Charge Android Phone Makers to Use Its Apps In Europe

Would you prefer purchasing an Android device that doesn't have any apps or services from Google? No Google Maps, No Gmail, No YouTube! And NOT even the Google Play Store—from where you could have installed any Android apps you want Because if you live in Europe, from now on, you have to spend so...

Google Will Charge Android Phone Makers to Use Its Apps In Europe

Would you prefer purchasing an Android device that doesn't have any apps or services from Google? No Google Maps, No Gmail, No YouTube! And NOT even the Google Play Store—from where you could have installed any Android apps you want Because if you live in Europe, from now on, you have to spend so...