Google pays $5bn in data collection lawsuit The class action — filed by law firm Boies Schiller Flexner in 2020 — claimed that Google had tracked users’ activity even when they set the Google Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private mode”. Google said it had been upfront about the data […]
Google pays $5bn in data collection lawsuit
The class action — filed by law firm Boies Schiller Flexner in 2020 — claimed that Google had tracked users’ activity even when they set the Google Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private mode”.
Google said it had been upfront about the data it collected and argued the collection of search history helped site owners “better evaluate the performance of their content, products, marketing and more”.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Google’s bid to have the case dismissed, saying she could not agree that users consented to allowing Google to collect information on their browsing activity.
Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. However, lawyers are expected to present a formal settlement for the court’s approval by February this year.
New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI
The American news giant is suing both firms over claims that its copyright was infringed to train the system. The New York Times said they should be held accountable for billions of dollars in damages.
According to the lawsuit, “millions” of articles published by the New York Times were used without its permission by ChatGPT, and claims the tool is now competing with the newspaper as a trustworthy information source.
It added that when asked about current events, ChatGPT will sometimes generate “verbatim excerpts” from New York Times articles, which cannot be accessed without paying for a subscription.
High-speed train company Hyperloop One shuts down
After promises of a new era of high-speed travel, Hyperloop One (known as Virgin Hyperloop until November 2022) has decided to cease operations following experts’ doubts over engineering challenges.
It would have required the construction of giant tubes across the countryside and within towns. It also had a problem with corners — so all the tubes would have had to be in a straight line.
As the problems became clear, at the end of 2022, Virgin founder Richard Branson, who had been company chairman, decided to cut-off all financial backing for the US-based firm.
The company had also endured scandal over the years, with one previous director Ziyavudin Magomedov jailed in Russia on embezzlement charges.
Tech firms must do more to protect young children in the metaverse, says NSPCC
British police are reportedly investigating the sexual abuse of a child’s avatar in the metaverse. It is thought to be the first investigation of a sexual offence in virtual reality by a UK police force.
UK children’s charity NSPCC is urging tech firms to do more to protect young users. The charity’s campaigners said online abuse is linked with physical abuse in the real world and can have a devastating impact on victims.
A report published by Mail Online said the victim, a girl under the age of 16, was traumatised by the experience, in which she was wearing an augmented reality headset.
Richard Collard, associate head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said “companies must act now and step up their efforts to protect children from abuse in virtual reality spaces.”
