alphabet

WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against data broker Kochava Inc., saying the Idaho company sold geolocation data from millions of mobile devices that could be used to trace people to abortion clinics, addiction recovery facilities and other sensitive locations.The suit filed Monday seeks to halt the company’s sale of sensitive geolocation data and require the company to delete sensitive information it has collected. “Where consumers seek out health care, receive counseling, or celebrate their…

Cloud businesses are reporting slowing sales growth, as economic worries weigh on the once-booming sector.After years of rising pandemic-fueled demand, some cloud companies cut their revenue-growth outlook in quarterly results this week, citing pressure on customers to rein in spending and wider concerns of a slowing economy. On Wednesday, Salesforce Inc., CRM -3.39% one of the largest vendors of cloud business software, reduced its full-year outlook. The sales software…

Representatives from the Alphabet Workers Union last week called on the company to stop collecting data on users seeking information about abortions. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News…

In a complaint filed with France's data protection watchdog, noyb.eu said Google has breached a European Union court ruling by sending unsolicited advertising emails directly to the inbox of Gmail users. The Alphabet unit, whose revenues mainly come from online advertising, should ask Gmail users for their prior consent before sending them any direct marketing emails, noyb.eu said, citing a 2021 decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE). While Google's ad emails may look like normal ones, they include…

In November 2020, Twitter Inc. TWTR 1.08% co-founder Jack Dorsey picked a famed ex-hacker, Peiter Zatko, to solve some of his social-media company’s most pernicious problems: protecting user privacy and the security of its computer systems.His choice was a man with near-legendary status in the industry who had been finding flaws and ways to correct them for nearly 30 years. Mr. Zatko, known as “Mudge,” is now…

Yelp now shows a warning alongside every crisis pregnancy center (i.e. anti-abortion center) listing on its platform. The alert reads, “Consumer Notice: This is a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Crisis Pregnancy Centers typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.” It’s a move that comes amid a trend of tech companies and their workers reacting to the overturn of Roe v. Wade.The business review site already labels thousands of anti-abortion centers as distinct from actual…

Apple CEO Tim Cook wants workers back at his Cupertino headquarters at least three days a week, but a number of his workers aren’t as excited to see their boss live in-person as company fans at the recent WWDC22 conference.Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)Like many employers dreaming of better times, Apple wants its workers back at their office desks, clacking away at keyboards all the live-long day (where they can be watched over with the hawk-like eyes of middle management). Workers, on the other hand, don’t see…

A group of workers at Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG 0.94% has asked the company to stop collecting data on users seeking information about abortions, according to a petition sent to Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai this week. The petition, signed by more than 650 workers, also called on the company to remove search results for crisis pregnancy centers, which it said were misleading to those seeking…

Google has overall invested well over a billion in blockchain and crypto companies over the past year or so.Photo: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)Do you think of Google as a “Web3” company? No? Well at least as far as their investing portfolio is concerned, they’re deeper into blockchain and crypto technology than any other top publicly traded company, by far.Blockdata, a crypto research firm, released an updated blog post Tuesday showing who’s been the most active investors in the crypto scene from September 2021 through…

Amazon AMZN -1.95% is testing a feature in its app that would show users a TikTok-style photo and video feed of products for shoppers to share with other users. The test is currently visible to a small number of Amazon employees, according to a person familiar with it. Amazon joins other major technology companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. that have attempted to bump up engagement…