GM counting on high-speed Internet services in car to drive profits
Now, as the company prepares to expand the technology to most of its 2016 U.S. models, GM is lifting the curtain on its digital business strategy
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EU to investigate transparency of Internet search results: document
By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Internet platforms such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! will be the subject of a widespread inquiry by European regulators to determine whether they are transparent enough in how they display search results. In a draft of the Commission's strategy for creating a digital single market, seen by Reuters, it says it will “carry out a comprehensive investigation and consultation on the role of platforms, including the growth of the sharing economy.” The investigation, expected to be carried out next year, will look into the transparency of search results – involving paid for links and advertisements – and how platforms use the information they acquire
Read moreMaryland prisons official fired for joking about being groped
(Reuters) – A senior Maryland state corrections official has been fired after making comments on social media about being groped in prison by guards, a prisons spokesman said on Friday.
Read moreHack gave U.S. and British spies access to billions of phones: Intercept
By Eric Auchard FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. and British spies hacked into the world’s biggest maker of phone SIM cards, allowing them to potentially monitor the calls, texts and emails of billions of mobile users around the world, an investigative news website reported.
Read moreRussian competition watchdog opens case against Google
By Maria Kiselyova MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's competition watchdog said on Friday it had opened a case against Google Inc over alleged violation of anti-monopoly law, following a complaint from Russia's biggest search site Yandex NV over Google's mobile platform.
Read moreChina’s Alibaba attracts attention from U.S. regulator
By Edwin Chan and Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Friday it was asked by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for information about its dealings with a Chinese regulator, coming just five months after the company's stock market debut
Read moreChinese regulator says to target e-commerce pricing behavior
A Chinese antitrust regulator said on Friday pricing tactics in the nation's e-commerce sector will be probed to ensure a “fair” market, likely putting new scrutiny on companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc. The comments come just two weeks after another government regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), accused Alibaba of failing to clean up what it called illegal business deals on the e-commerce titan's platforms. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on its website that it would “organize and develop special inspections into the online retail sector's pricing behavior”
Read more‘Hot Mugshot Guy’ from California gets 27 months in prison
By Michael Fleeman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jeremy Meeks, the California man whose mugshot became a sensation among Web users admiring his male-model good looks, has been sentenced to more than two years in prison on a gun charge, federal prosecutors said on Friday. Meeks, 30, was arrested last June in a gang crackdown in Stockton, California, and pleaded guilty in November to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to U.S
Read moreBMW fixes security flaw in its in-car software
German luxury carmaker BMW has fixed a security flaw that could have allowed hackers to unlock the doors of up to 2.2 million Rolls-Royce, Mini and BMW vehicles, it said on Friday. BMW said officials at German motorist association ADAC had identified the problem, which affected cars equipped with the company's ConnectedDrive software using on-board SIM cards — the chips used to identify authorized users of mobile devices. BMW drivers can use the software and SIM cards to activate door locking mechanisms, as well as a range of other services including real-time traffic information, online entertainment and air conditioning.
Read moreGoogle to change privacy policy after investigation by UK data watchdog
Search engine Google has agreed to better inform users about how it handles their personal information after an investigation by Britain's data protection regulator found its privacy policy was too vague. The Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement that it required Google to sign a “formal undertaking” that it would make the changes by June 30 and take further steps in the next two years. The ICO investigation stems from a privacy policy implemented by Google in March 2012 that consolidated some 70 existing privacy policies into one and pooled data collected on individual users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and its social network Google+.
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