Latest News

There are no atheists in foxholes, and no tech regulators in a coronavirus lockdown. What was once thunderously de­s­cr­ibed as “surveillance capitalism” is now a pandemic necessity. Twitch is where our children go to school; Twitter where epidemiological models are debated; and WhatsApp where we have drinks with friends. Some 40 per cent of the world’s population is living under lockdown, according to AFP, creating exactly the kind of bored and isolated citizens whose fingers linger over their Facebook app button, as my colleague Alex Webb notes. Our personal information is hoovered up as before, but data privacy is now gone from our hierarchy of needs. Likewise, the market power that made Big Tech look so dangerous makes it look vital and dependable now. Amazon.com Inc., which has always wanted to be the Everything Store, is now the Only Store in cities like Paris or San Francisco, where it’s an essential lifeline for a myriad of household goods (with some restrictions) t...

Shoppers will soon be able to work out the true carbon footprint of their purchases thanks to an app from one of the most digitally savvy nations in the world. Unlike other carbon-footprint calculators already on the market, the application developed by Enfuce Financial Services Oy, a Finnish payment services provider, does not rely on users inputting the data manually. Instead, it combines data from credit cards and banks with purchase data from retailers to provide real-time calculations of how a given product affects the climate. With an estimated 70% of carbon emissions globally attributed to end users, Enfuce chairman and co-founder Monika Liikamaa says the app will help people adapt their lifestyles and make them compatible with the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius. Read Complete Article

India is emerging as the testing and acquisition playground for global consumer technology companies , especially the so-called FAANGs, according to a veteran internet analyst. RBC Capital Markets’ Mark Mahaney, who calls himself Wall Street’s “oldest internet analyst” after covering the sector for more than two decades, said India is now more popular than markets like China because it has the same growth dynamics but with fewer regulations. As one of the largest economies and most populous countries in the world, India has turned into a testing ground for companies such as Facebook Inc., which has used it to beta-test a payments feature for WhatsApp. Netflix Inc. rolled out a mobile plan in India at 199 rupees ($2.80), much cheaper than what it charges for a basic plan elsewhere, and has created original content to capture more market share. “ India does have regulations but it doesn’t seem to be as protectionist as China,” said Mahaney. India has been considering a new law...