Blog Posts
Microsoft Unbundles Teams from Office Worldwide
Following its decision to unbundle Teams in Europe last year, Microsoft has decided to unbundle Teams from its Office products worldwide as of April 1. This move will allow companies to use alternative chat and video apps. In response to a 2020 complaint raised by Salesforce, who owns competing software Slack, the European Commission opened an investigation into whether...
New Florida Law Limits Social Media for Children
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed bill HB 3 into law, prohibiting children younger than 14 years old from being social media account holders. Children aged 14 and 15 will require parental consent. The law will go into effect January 1, 2025, and will require social media platforms to delete accounts and any related personal data of account holders who are under 14...
Google Says AI Is Making Ads Safer
Google recently released its annual 2023 Ads Safety Report to update the public on its work in “enforcing our advertiser and publisher policies” and outlining its steps to “maintaining a healthy ad-supported internet.” With the rise of Generative AI, new and evolved risks have emerged when it comes to the advertising business. However Google has also leveraged GenAI to...
Fiverr Launches New Campaign for UK Entrepreneurs
Fiverr partnered with Dragon’s Den star Steven Bartlett to build opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The pair announced the new “Break The Breakthrough” campaign is open to business owners in the UK. The program will grant three businesses access to £10,000 in Fiverr Credits, dedicated guidance from a Fiverr Customer Success Manager, and a 45-minute...
FTC Investigating TikTok Over Privacy Concerns
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating TikTok over its data privacy and security practices, in particular related to collecting data from users under 13. The Children's Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) rule requires that companies notify and obtain consent from parents of users under 13 before they can collect any user data. In addition, the FTC is...
Apple Publishes Paper on its Advances in GenAI
Apple recently published a paper on the work it is doing to improve how we interact with large language models (LLMs). In particular, “A Multimodal Approach to Device-Directed Speech Detection with Large Language Models” investigates areas that could bring improvements to voice activated applications, making them more intuitive and natural to use. In the current systems,...
IONOS Study Shows SMBs Need to Digitize
IONOS released the results of its annual survey of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and found that they “view digitalization as important for their future viability.” The survey revealed that nearly 80% of American SMBs consider digitalization important for their future, an increase compared to last year. American SMBs, however, fall behind their European...
Personal Data Stolen Years Ago Published Online
Three years after an alleged data breach of AT&T customers, the full dataset is now available online. In 2021, a threat actor, known as ShinyHunters, put a dataset of more than 70 million users up for auction, claiming it was data from AT&T users. The starting price was set to $200,000, with incremental increases of $30,000. ShinyHunters was allegedly willing to...
UN General Assembly Adopts Global AI Resolution
The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution giving direction that the purpose of artificial intelligence should ultimately be for the global good. The resolution also underlines the need to address racial discrimination around the world. The first of its kind, the resolution titled “Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence...
US Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple
The US Justice Department, 15 states, and the District of Columbia have come together to sue Apple for its anti-competitive practices. The lawsuit was filed through the US Federal Court in Newark, New Jersey. The complaint maintains that as the result of Apple’s behaviors has led to higher prices and less competition in the smartphone market. In the US, iPhones occupy an...
EU Set to Put Landmark AI Legislation into Law
The European Parliament has approved the Artificial Intelligence Act, a sweeping new law that would bring safeguards to protect citizens and democracy without stifling innovation in the new landscape of generative AI. The act introduces outright bans on certain types of AI applications, including scraping internet or CCTV footage to build facial recognition databases and...
Google Business Profiles Display Social Media Content
Google Business Profiles will now automatically display posts from social media platforms in select regions. Google first introduced the possibility to add social media links to Business Profiles last year. At the time, the Business Profile displayed the links directly, giving Search users an alternative way to interact with businesses. This update expands that feature to...
Apple Introduces Sweeping Changes in EU
Apple has announced a number of changes to iOS, Safari and the App Store in the European Union (EU) in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA, set to come into effect in March, is a regulation to ensure the digital market remains fair and competitive. The DMA works hand-in-hand with EU competition laws and lays out additional obligations and...
Big Tech Facing Changes With New EU Law
Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) took effect early March, impacting the way some of the largest tech platforms work in Europe. Since the inception of the DMA in July 2022, various tech platforms have been working with European regulators to adapt the way their platforms function to adhere to the new regulations. These new regulations aim to give users more choice and...
US Passes Bill That Could Lead to TikTok Ban
The US House of Representatives has passed a vote that could be a first step toward banning TikTok in the US and removing access for its current 170 million US-based users. The bill received bipartisan support, with an overall vote of 352 to 65 to move the legislation forward. Due to Chinese technology company ByteDance owning TikTok, US legislators worry about security...