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Google is facing a formal investigation in the EU into its lucrative advertising business. In contrast to previous investigations, this time the entire value chain is at stake. The EU Commission could initiate formal proceedings against Google's digital advertising business. The investigation is expected to start later this year, Reuters has learned from insiders. Apparently, it is a reaction to a previous unofficial investigation. In January, Google had to fill out two questionnaires from the EU Commission, including one on its advertising business. Now a formal investigation is to follow. Investigation with a new dimension The investigation is to look at Google's position compared to advertisers, publishers, intermediaries and competitors, Reuters reports. At issue is whether Google is exploiting its power and making conditions more difficult for other market players. The EU's antitrust watchdogs have imposed billions of dollars in fines on Google in the past. Google...

The messenger service WhatsApp does not exactly have the best reputation at the moment. The criticism comes primarily from data protectionists. Normal users, on the other hand, shrug their shoulders. The months-long controversy over WhatsApp's new privacy rules appears to have had little consequence for Facebook's chat service in Germany. In a survey commissioned by the news agency dpa, 79 percent said they use the app on their smartphone. According to the survey, a good half of WhatsApp users (52 percent) already agreed with the new rules, which came into force in mid-May. At the same time, 13 percent said they planned to delete the app. Around half of them already had data protection concerns beforehand, while five percent of respondents only had doubts following the debate about the new regulations. Two percent want to leave because many of their contacts would also have removed WhatsApp. Half have "no good feeling," but stay anyway Whether it actually comes to the...

TikTok's privacy policy for the US now mentions the collection of biometric data from faces and voices. The background is likely to be a legal dispute that cost the company $92 million. Neue Datenschutzbestimmungen sind oft eher etwas für Juristen, doch die jüngste Aktualisierung von TikTok sollte alle Nutzerinnen und Nutzer in den USA aufhorchen lassen. Denn in den am 2. Juni aktualisierten Datenschutzbestimmungen für die USA ist ein Abschnitt enthalten, den es zuvor nicht gab. Er lautet übersetzt: »Wir sammeln möglicherweise biometrische Identifikationsmerkmale und biometrische Informationen, wie sie im US-Recht definiert sind, wie etwa von deinem Gesicht und deiner Stimme, aus deinen Inhalten.« Im englischsprachigen Original ist von »faceprint« und »voiceprint« die Rede. »Bevor wir damit anfangen«, frage man jedoch nach dem Einverständnis, wenn dies gesetzlich nötig sei, fügte noch TikTok hinzu. In response to an initial inquiry from "TechCrunch" about the ba...

Facebook has become the focus of the EU antitrust authorities: the world's largest online network could be violating EU law by misusing the data of its advertising customers. Facebook is not the first U.S. Internet company to be scrutinized by the EU. The EU antitrust authority has launched investigations against Facebook for violations of competition law. The proceedings are about whether the online giant is violating EU law with its Facebook Marketplace classifieds service. This was announced by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.  Via Marketplace, users of the social network can privately buy and sell goods from each other. According to the EU Commission, it wants to clarify whether Facebook is exploiting its position in other markets for this service in an anti-competitive manner. If competing companies advertised their services on the largest social network, Facebook could come into possession of commercially valuable data and then use it against competitors, accor...

Although the majority of German companies have had to deal with at least one cybersecurity incident in the past twelve months, almost 40 percent still believe their IT systems are optimally protected. What cybersecurity risks pose a threat to your company in the next twelve months? What measures is your company taking to protect its IT infrastructure? Europe's leading crowdsourced security platform YesWeHack asked 512 IT decision makers in Germany these and other questions. "Kroker's Look @ IT" presents the results of the survey today exclusively in advance. According to the results, half of the companies surveyed had to deal with at least one cybersecurity incident in the last twelve months. Three in ten respondents report one to ten attacks (29 percent), while eleven percent report eleven to 20 incidents. Five percent of firms even report more than 50 IT security incidents. The study participants were most frequently confronted with access control problems, such as ...

 Since the launch of the General Data Protection Regulation three years ago, cookie banners have become ubiquitous on the web. The data protection organization Noyb considers these requests to be manipulative - and wants to take action against them. The European data protection organization Noyb wants to take action against illegal cookie consent requests on the web with a large-scale wave of legal complaints. The association sent around 560 letters of complaint to companies in Europe and the USA. According to Noyb's assessment, the companies had used cookie banners to illegally obtain consent for data tracking. Cookies are small data sets that websites store to make users identifiable. Cookies can be used to create user profiles that allow far-reaching conclusions to be drawn about surfing behavior, preferences and lifestyle habits. This knowledge is used for personalized advertising, for example. Clear choice between "Yes" or "No" The association Noyb, founded...

Court documents have surfaced on the web that indicate that Google deliberately hid important privacy options as deeply as possible in Android's settings so that users would not use them if possible. Third-party manufacturers apparently also tried to persuade them to hide the options. Serious accusations against Google: According to a report in Business Insider, the Android makers have deliberately hidden important privacy options as deep as possible in the operating system's settings. This is apparently from unredacted court documents, which are currently no longer accessible on the web, however. Accordingly, Google had tested Android versions in which the settings for data protection and data collection were quite easy to find, whereupon these were also adjusted accordingly more often by the users. This was a "problem" for Google, which is why the options are hidden deeper in the settings. In addition, Google probably tried to persuade third-party manufacturers like...