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Pentagon awards Microsoft $10 Bn ‘War Cloud’ Deal

29Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

Pentagon awards Microsoft $10 Bn ‘War Cloud’ Deal

The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a USD 10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI. The contentious bidding process for the contract pitted Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, among others, against one another. Bidding for the huge government contract has attracted more attention than usual, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be awarded the deal. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids. Oracle also challenged the bid process in federal court but lost. The resulting system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the US military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Department of Defence emphasized in an announcement that the process was fair and followed p...

Google Fined $170 mn for Sharing Kids YouTube Channel Data

9Sep By AdityaNo Comments

News

Google Fined $170 mn for Sharing Kids YouTube Channel Data

Google agreed to pay USD 170 million to settle charges that it illegally collected and shared data from children on its YouTube video service, deal critics said was too soft on the internet giant. The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the New York State Attorney General is the largest amount in a case involving the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a 1998 federal law, officials said. Officials said YouTube violated the law that requires child-directed websites and online services to provide notice of their information practices and obtain parental consent prior to collecting personal information from children under 13. The company marketed itself as a destination for children and benefitted by selling advertising to toymakers and others seeking to connect wi...

Google Acquires Socratic, Launched iOS app

19Aug By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Google Acquires Socratic, Launched iOS app

Socratic, an AI-based mobile learning app acquired by Google. The official announcement was made by the Socratic founder on his blog. A mail to Google by Pixr8 news has not been answered until publishing the article. After a quiet acquisition, Google has launched the iOS version of the Socratic today. AI technology based app to help high school and university students when they’re doing schoolwork outside the classroom. It guides them through the resources that are available online and identifies the core underlying concepts that will lead them to answers to their questions. Students can take a photo of a question or use their voice to ask a question, and the app will find the most relevant resources from across the web. If they’re struggling to understand textbook content ...

Be careful! Google workers listening Your Voice recorded on Google Home

12Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Be careful! Google workers listening Your Voice recorded on Google Home

Online search giant Google admits its employee and contractors regularly listen and review some recordings of what people say to its artificial-intelligence system Google Assistant, via their phone or through smart speakers such as the Google Home. In the latest report, Company acknowledged that its employees can access those recordings after some of its Dutch language audio snippets were leaked. Google product manager David Monsees acknowledged the leak in a blog post and said the company is investigating the breach."We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again," he wrote.More than 1,000 recordings were obtained by Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS, which noted in a story that some contained sensitive personal conver...

11Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Amazon beat Apple & Google as the most valuable brand

In the latest survey, Amazon beat Apple and Google to become the world's most valuable brand in the world. The brand value of Amazon surged by 52 percent to $315 billion, global market research agency Kantar said in its 2019 100 Top BrandZ report. Amazon jumped from third to first place to eclipse Google which slid from first to third place with Apple holding on to the second spot. The Seattle-based retail behemoth, founded by Jeff Bezos in his garage in 1994, topped the table thanks to key acquisitions, superior customer services and a disruptive business model, Kantar said in a statement. "Amazon's smart acquisitions, that have led to new revenue streams, excellent customer service provision and its ability to stay ahead of its competitors by offering a diverse ecosystem of ...

Google top in Lobbying, Spent USD 21.7 Million

10Jun By AdityaNo Comments

USA

Google top in Lobbying, Spent USD 21.7 Million

Google has spent USD 21.7 million on lobbying last year to influence lawmakers, becoming the leading corporate spender among the tech companies facing increasing scrutiny from US regulators over privacy practices and market control, according to a media report. Lobbying spending by tech companies has been on a steady rise in recent years and is way up over the past decade, according to the report on CNBC. The report cited data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which is a non-profit, nonpartisan research group that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy. As the biggest US technology companies face increasing scrutiny from regulators related to privacy practices and market control, they are spending a lot more money to try and influence lawmak...

Google drops Healofy app from Play Store

30May By AdityaNo Comments

News

Google drops Healofy app from Play Store

Bengaluru based Healofy app was removed by Google for violation of its developer policy. The exact violation of Play Store policy is not revealed by the company. The app of Healofy has now been unavailable for over 72 hours from Google Play store. Healofy is a social networking app focused on pregnancy and parenting had raised over $11 million from investors. Google in its response said any violation of its developer policies invites such action. But according to industry insiders like entrepreneurs and app developers, removing an app from play store is a very harsh step for policy violation. “Our users are the core of our product and we take user privacy and data very seriously. We are working with Google, who have been very cooperative, towards reinstating the app on...

Google will never sell data to 3rd parties: Sundar Pichai, Google CEO

9May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Google will never sell data to 3rd parties: Sundar Pichai, Google CEO

Google will never sell any personal information of its users to third parties, CEO Sundar Pichai has said, amidst growing global concern over the misuse of personal data by some social media giants. In an opinion piece in The New York Times published on Tuesday, he also said that privacy cannot be a "luxury good" that is only available to people who can afford to buy premium products and services.The 46-year-old Indian-origin CEO of Google said he believed that privacy was "one of the most important topics of our time."People today are rightly concerned about how their information is used and shared, yet they all define privacy in their own ways, he said. "To make privacy real, we give you clear, meaningful choices around your data. All while staying true to two unequivocal policies:...

Google Acquires 51.2% Stakes of Burning Man Festival

3Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Google Acquires 51.2% Stakes of Burning Man Festival

According to mixmag website, world's leading search giant Google has acquired the majority share of Burning Man festival. As per the report, Google proposes this offer on 31st March to take over majority stakes of the festival and organsers were agreed on it. Google now owns 51.2 per cent of the festival, meaning it now has the controlling share and will be taking over logistics and the annual running of the event. Though the amount of acquisition is still undisclosed, Pixr8 sources said the deal is around $1.2 billion. There is no secret that Google founders have had a presence at the festival since its inception for years and Sergey Brin, and Larry even hired its first CEO (Eric Schmidt) back in 2001 based on how he managed at the week-long pilgrimage. Marcus Fooly, Goog...

Rajan Anandan Quit Google, Joined Sequoia Capital

2Apr By NitishNo Comments

News

Rajan Anandan Quit Google, Joined Sequoia Capital

Google's Vice President for South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan quits Google India to join Sequoia Capital India as a Managing Director. Serving at Google for 8 years, Rajan now move to Sequoia India where he will focus on developing "Surge" into the world's top scale-up programme for startups, said Shailendra J. Singh, Managing Director at Sequoia. Rajan will join the leadership team at the firm, in addition to the six current Managing Directors. Anandan will continue at Google till the end of April and Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director, Sales will take on the responsibility in the interim for Google India, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. After news break, Anandan tweets, 8 amazing years. 850million internet users across India and SEA. Many billions of r...

Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed to US, not Chinese military

28Mar By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed to US, not Chinese military

US President Donald Trump said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whom he'd previously accused of indirectly boosting China's military, has reassured him that he is "totally committed" to US security. "Just met with @sundarpichai, President of @Google, who is obviously doing quite well," Trump tweeted after a White House meeting. "He stated strongly that he is totally committed to the US Military, not the Chinese Military." Earlier this month Trump complained that Google's business activities in China were "helping China and their military. "There was also criticism from General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told Congress "the work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting" China's armed forces. America's top military officer has also urged US...

EU to slap Google with fresh fine: Report

16Mar By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

EU to slap Google with fresh fine: Report

The EU's anti-trust regulator is to slap tech giant Google with a new fine over unfair competition practices, sources told AFP on March 15. Brussels has targeted the Silicon Valley firm's AdSense advertising service, saying it restricts some client websites from displaying ads from third parties. The decision in the long-running case, first reported by the Financial Times, is the latest anti-trust salvo against Google, which has already received nearly seven billion euros in EU fines. Two sources close to the matter said the verdict would land next week, most likely on Wednesday. "We are in the process of finalising the AdSense case," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said earlier this week. In July 2018, the US giant was ordered to pay a record 4.34 billion...