Hello, welcome to Tuesday. We’ve got some tech news for you, let’s dive right in.
1. Meta cops another multimillion-dollar fine in Ireland
Meta may have to break open its legal piggybank once again to put to rest yet another data privacy fine in Europe. Irish regulators imposed a €265 million (around $411 million) fine on Meta for an alleged privacy violation impacting more than 500 million users on the Facebook app. The fine, which involves third-party data scraping previously occurring on the platform, marks the third fine from the organisation in less than two years.
2. Musk distances himself from fanboys
Despite tech magnate Elon Musk’s recent and constant drama with Twitter, his newest company, there can be no doubt that the man still has legions of adoring followers. One group of fanboys took their devotion to the next level, delivering a $US600,000 sculpture of Musk to Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas. The richest man in the world ignored them.
3. Musk vs Apple
Still on Musk (I’m going to start calling this ‘your daily wrap-up of the batshit stuff going on in Elon’s World’) and according to the BBC, Mr Twitter has said Apple has halted most of its advertising on Twitter and accused the company of threatening to remove the platform from its app store. The feud comes as many companies have halted spending on Twitter amid concerns about Musk’s content moderation plans for the site. Here’s another poll.
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
4. Australia has new privacy laws
Under current Australian privacy legislation, companies are prevented from sharing such details about their customers with third parties. But, reforms to the Australian Privacy Act have now changed that. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus introduced legislation in October to significantly increase penalties for repeated or serious privacy breaches. In a statement, Dreyfus said, “When Australians are asked to hand over their personal data they have a right to expect it will be protected”. Now, those reforms have been passed by both Houses and they’re all but enshrined into law.
5. Apple pulls lyrics from iPhone 14 ad
Back to Apple for a sec and as the tech giant continues to roll out its new iPhone 14, it’s also facing a little controversy following the release of an ad for the new tech. The ad now features an instrumental version of the track after the song’s lyrics were misheard as a racial slur. The ad uses the song “Biggest” from actor Idris Elba, who moonlights as a DJ and recording producer. “Biggest” features a looping clip of a voice saying “biggest” over and over again and if you listen closely, it does vaguely sound like a particular racial slur.
BONUS ITEM: Happy Birthday, Pong.
Nov. 29, 1972 #History #OnThisDay Co-founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell released #PONG, the first commercially successful #video #game. pic.twitter.com/q20NJq7HQV
— Dan Peel “Absent-Minded Historian” (@dpeel10) November 28, 2022
Have a good day, folks.