Google Hit With Another $500+ Million Fine
Google is in the news for the wrong reasons again. The search giant agreed to pay a 500 million euro fine (about $550 million) to settle a French fiscal fraud probe after investigators in the country accused it of dodging taxes, Reuters reported.
Google’s headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, where it settles all sales contracts to avoid paying higher taxes in the rest of Europe. Alphabet isn’t the only company to take advantage of tax loopholes to avoid paying its fair share; Apple and Facebook also have large operations there.
Facebook Expects Record-Setting FTC Fine for Privacy Violations
Five billion would be a record for FTC punishment of a tech company and would signal harsher scrutiny to come for an industry that has accrued unparalleled wealth and power with little regulatory oversight. Facebook’s fine comes after a saga of instances in which it failed to protect user data. Most damningly, the company vowed to shore up its data protection practices in 2011 and can now be accused of failing to uphold that promise.
Street Fight Daily: Bing, Yahoo Take Bite of Google’s Search Share, Native Ads Get FTC Guidelines
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Microsoft and Yahoo Search Share Grows, Still Trails Google by Miles (Ad Age)… The FTC Is Cracking Down on Native Advertising (Fortune)… A Former Topsy Employee Has an Interesting Theory on Why Apple Shut Down This $200 Million Acquisition (Business Insider)…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Messages Businesses, Amazon’s Angie’s List Killer
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Do Facebook Users Really Want To Chat With Businesses? (Fortune)… Amazon’s On-Demand Services Marketplace Launches Monday (TechCrunch)… Google Launches Major Push To Get Local Businesses Online, Improve Data (Search Engine Land)…
Street Fight Daily: FTC Considered Google Suit, Sears Bets on Inventory Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… FTC Staff Wanted to Sue Google for Ripping Off TripAdvisor and Yelp (Skift)… Has Google Perfected the Retail Search Ad With Its Local Inventory Offering (AdWeek)… 45% Of Offline Retail Sales Will Be Web-Influenced By 2020 (Forrester)…
Street Fight Daily: Square Adds Loans, Foursquare Declares Search Broken (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Square Expands into Small Business Loans (Financial Times)… Foursquare Declares Local Search (Yelp And Google) Broken, Vows Fix With Personalization (TechCrunch)… The FTC Condemns the Data Brokerage Industry’s Collection Practices (Pando)…
Street Fight Daily: Massive Layoffs at CityGrid, FTC Expands Regulations On Location Data
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… IAC’s CityGrid, Parent Of CitySearch And Urbanspoon, Lays Off Two-Thirds Of Staff, As Local Ad Push Bites(TechCrunch)… FTC Updates COPPA With New Restrictions On Location Data (AdExchanger)… Is Yelp A Bully Or Just Misunderstood? (BuzzFeed)…
Street Fight Daily: FTC Reviews Waze Deal, Twitter Developing Hyperlocal Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Google Confirms Antitrust Review of Waze Deal(Wall Street Journal)… Twitter is Developing Geo-Targeted Ads for Retailers (AdAge)… Paton: ‘Bad CEOs and Worse Editors’ Are Trying To ‘Kill Our Future’()…
Street Fight Daily: FTC Clears Google, Square Sold at Starbucks
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Calls FTC Deal with Google a ‘Missed Opportunity’ (CNet)… Now on Sale at Starbucks: Square’s Credit Card Reader (The New York Times)… You’re Not Alone: Hyper-Local People-Finding (ClickZ)…
FTC Pushes ‘Do Not Track’ for Consumer Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission this morning released its final Commission Privacy Report, emphasizing the need for a “do not track” mechanism to protect consumers from unauthorized collection of their personal information and more laws to protect consumer privacy. The report will give hyperlocal advertisers, publishers, and location-based services some insight on the direction policymakers will take in 2012 regarding consumer privacy…
Consumer Privacy in Focus as Regulators Zero in on Mobile
Jules Polonetsky, co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, says that policy makers should not confuse their desire to protect consumers with legitimate passive use of smartphone data to provide core mobile services. Those functions include using tower triangulation to locate the device in order to provide the strongest signal, ensure critical mission flows, or help users find wifi connections…
How Should Hyperlocal Sites Handle User Information?
Publishers should be transparent on their information practices with their users. Such transparency should include what information publishers collect from their users, how the information may be used, whether publishers may share such information, what choices users have with their information, and keeping such data secure…
FTC Pushes Privacy Guidelines for Mobile: What It Means for Hyperlocals
Hyperlocal businesses that rely on location-based services to reach customers must consider new safeguards — such as “up-front” disclosures and “do not track” mechanisms — to stay in line with new mobile guidelines issued Friday by the Federal Trade Commission…