There is a bill being making its rounds in the Senate that, if passed, would require large internet companies to disclose that their results are using “opaque algorithms” and offer consumers the option to see search or content that are non-personalized. This was reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and is called “The Filter […]

After an extensive public debate last year, the European Parliament passed a sweeping new Copyright Directive that was very controversial. This directive was intended to both harmonize and modernize EU copyright law, as well as generate licensing revenue for authors and publishers from big internet companies like Facebook and Google. The first country in the […]

CNIL, the French privacy regulator attempted to assert authority over Google globally saying that the EU’s “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) would apply to the entire Google.com index, and not just the EU jurisdiction. In a move to counter, Google said that RTBF removals should apply to European domains exclusively, and Europe’s top court agreed. […]

Ecosia, the Berlin-based search engine, says that it won’t participate in Google’s “search-choice” auction for Android devices in 2020 in Europe. With this coming to light, will others follow? Earlier in August, Google announced that it will introduce a new “choice screen” in Europe for Android users in 2020. The screen will be displayed when setting […]

On Friday, July 12, The FTC voted to fine Facebook a record $5 billion for apparent violation of a a 2011 consent decree that required the company to better protect user privacy. This news came from reports in Wall Street Journal, New York Times and AP. The FTC final vote was 3-2. In addition to the fine, […]

It would seem that no matter would the industry does to help deal with online privacy, people are increasingly resigning themselves to believe that privacy on the internet is “impossible.” Because of this, users could permanently change their behavior and share less online. This is the key finding in a new survey of more than […]

Earlier this week, Google was accused of stealing lyrics from Genius, a song lyrics web site without proper licensing agreement. In response to those accusations, Google said that it “licenses the lyrics text from third parties” and does “not crawl or scrape websites to source these lyrics” in a blog post on Tuesday. Even then, […]

With the events of GDPR having taken place so far, it still has not given consumers any more confidence when it comes to interactions with publishers and marketers online, according to a survey of UK consumers by Ipsos and Trust Arch. 2,230 adults were surveyed by the companies this month to see how they felt […]

There are new SERPs that are appearing in Germany, prompting users to try alternative directories or search engines for the same local query. These SERPs are part of Google’s ongoing effort to comply with the European Commission’s (EC) antitrust decision in shopping search. The following images concern local results, and not shopping search results. The […]

Due to an antitrust decision last year in Europe, Google had been ordered to stop compelling phone makers to pre-install Google apps to gain access to Google Play. The decision came with a €4.3 billion (roughly $5 billion) fine, which Google is appealing. Even though the company is appealing the decision, Google is still complying […]