giants

EDPB Demands Real Privacy Choice from Adtech Giants Such as Meta for EU Users

Dripping Meta Logo 1
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance which has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. The guidance, which was confirmed incoming Wednesday as we reported earlier, will steer how privacy regulators interpret the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a critical area. The full opinion of the EDPB on so-called “consent or pay” runs to 42-pages. However a market leader imposing that kind of binary choice looks unviable, per the EDPB, an expert body made up of representatives of data protection authorities from around the EU. “Online platforms should give users a real choice when employing ‘consent or pay’ models,” Talu wrote.

Deezer Applauds Antitrust Fine Against Apple but Accuses Tech Giant of “Deceptive” DMA Response

Deezer App
Streaming music service Deezer is joining Spotify in cheering the European Union’s €1.84 billion fine imposed on Apple for breaking antitrust rules in the streaming music market. Apple’s new DMA rules, introduced in January, are a complicated means of providing a path forward for app developers to distribute apps from alternative app marketplaces. Deezer is among those developers who drafted an open letter to the EC last week, claiming Apple was making a “mockery” of the DMA. So far, we’ve only heard from MacPaw, the maker of a subscription service for apps, Setapp, which announced it was switching to Apple’s DMA terms last week. However, larger developers, like Apple critics Spotify and Epic Games, as well as tech companies like Meta, Mozilla, and Microsoft have criticized Apple’s new rules.

Database leak reveals 2FA codes for global tech giants

Dripping 2fa
The Asian technology and internet company YX International manufactures cellular networking equipment and provides SMS text message routing services. YX International claims to send five million SMS text messages daily. But codes sent over SMS text messages are not as secure as stronger forms of 2FA, such as an app-based code generator, since SMS text messages are prone to interception or exposure — or in this case, leaking from a database onto the open web. TechCrunch found in the exposed database sets of internal email addresses and corresponding passwords associated with YX International, and alerted the company to the spilling database. YX International would not say for how long the database was exposed.

“Sneak Peek: UK’s Digital Markets Regulator Unveils Revamped Regulations for Big Tech”

Three Hammers
Interoperability could also be imposed on designated tech giants, the CMA suggested, as well as mandates that they trade on fairer terms. Algorithmic transparency could be another demand made of them by the new digital markets regulator. As a consequence the UK has slipped behind peers like the European Union — which adopted its own flagship digital competition reform last year. The deadline for in-scope tech giants’ compliance with that regime is looming in early March. A German ex ante digital competition reform has also been operating since early 2021.