NewsBytes Briefing: Apple, Google under investigation, and more
In the updates since last night, Italy's competition authority launched six investigation cases into the cloud storage services operated by Google, Apple, Dropbox. The watchdog is looking into allegations of unfair commercial practices against the companies, including the case of failing to explain how user data would be collected and used for commercial purposes. Here are other developments.
Paytm has sent a legal notice to Cyble, a US-based cyber-security company. The payments giant has asked Cyble to stop making false claims about a data breach at its e-commerce arm Paytm Mall, and given the firm a week to issue a public communication stating that the contents of its August 30 blog post that first declared the hack of the store are incorrect.
"Please note that your aforesaid unprofessional and callous act in circulating an unverified and false piece of information in the public has already done damage to the company, as our customers are completely disrupted and terrified by this information."
China on Tuesday unveiled an initiative to establish global standards on data security. The initiative features eight key points to prevent infringing upon personal information of people and conducting mass surveillance, including not using technology to impair other countries' critical infrastructure or steal data, and making sure service providers don't install backdoors in their products and illegally obtain user data.
Announcing the initiative, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, "Some individual countries are aggressively pursuing unilateralism, throwing dirty water on other countries under the pretext of 'cleanliness', and conducting global hunts...under the pretext of security. This is naked bullying and should be opposed and rejected."
In an unrelated news, Microsoft's upcoming affordable console, the Xbox Series S, has surfaced in a new leak. The device, dubbed Lockhart, carries a slimmer profile than that of Series X, and a circular vent painted in black. This model will probably not have a disc drive and retail at a lower price-tag of $299. The top-end Series X console will ship at $499.
Among other things, LG's new Wing smartphone with a swiveling display surfaced in a new video, while OnePlus is said to be planning just one OnePlus 8T model. Then, in another case, data of as many as 186,000 customers of Service NSW, an Australian state government agency providing access to various services, was stolen through a massive phishing attack.
India on Monday reported over 75,000 new coronavirus infections, taking the nationwide tally to 42,77,572. The death toll rose to 72,835 with over 1,100 fresh fatalities. To fight the pandemic, Russia has released the first batch of its Sputnik V vaccine to the public, while WHO has said that India is in talks to join the COVAX vaccine allocation scheme.
