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Social media technology

• January 20, 2022 20 Jan'22

  Advantages of traditional banks are weakening amid digital challenge, says FCA

  Weakening of the advantages enjoyed by traditional banks over the years is “driven by digital innovation and changing consumer behaviour”, says regulator

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Government funds charity campaign to warn big tech over the risks of encryption to children

  Barnardo’s and other charities begin a government-backed PR campaign to warn of the dangers end-to-end encryption poses to child safety, which has been criticised as being ‘one-sided’

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Content removal will not stop misinformation, says Royal Society

  Censorship of scientific misinformation online could exacerbate feelings of distrust, so government should look at information literacy and funding fact checkers instead, says report

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  Companies propose scanning content pre-encryption to fight CSAM

  Firms working on the UK government’s Safety Tech Challenge have suggested that scanning content before encryption will help prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material – but privacy concerns remain

• January 06, 2022 06 Jan'22

  France fines Facebook and Google over alleged cookie malpractice

  French data protection authorities clamp down on tech platforms for purposely making it more burdensome for users to decline tracking cookies

• January 05, 2022 05 Jan'22

  Fintech players get cozy in Luxembourg

  Luxembourg aims to play a larger role in the rapidly growing global fintech market

• December 31, 2021 31 Dec'21

  Top 10 Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcasts of 2021

  The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast team began the year discussing the online fallout from the storming of the White House and finished it discussing IT and climate change, touching on bees and datacentres along the way

• December 29, 2021 29 Dec'21

  Top 10 retail technology stories of 2021

  Computer Weekly looks at what 2021 had in store for the retail industry – did technology help retailers recover from the effects of the pandemic?

• December 14, 2021 14 Dec'21

  Joint committee publishes report on improving Online Safety Bill

  MPs and peers release report on Online Safety Bill following five-month inquiry into the draft legislation and make a number of recommendations on how it can be improved to deal with harmful content and abuse on the internet

• December 08, 2021 08 Dec'21

  Number of .uk domain suspensions at record low

  Statistics from Nominet show how effective law enforcement action against cyber crime in the UK is paying off

• December 06, 2021 06 Dec'21

  Consumers say supermarkets among best at social engagement

  Many types of business have improved their online interactions with consumers as a result of the pandemic, with consumers claiming supermarkets are among the most engaging

• November 30, 2021 30 Nov'21

  MI6 will ‘open up’ to tech firms to innovate faster than adversaries, says chief Richard Moore

  MI6 will use investment fund to back tech companies to develop long-term technologies that will help it to keep pace with China and Russia

• November 25, 2021 25 Nov'21

  Government must prove its plans to police encryption work, says ex-cyber security chief

  Ciaran Martin, the former UK cyber security chief, says the government must explain how it can access encrypted communications without damaging cyber security and weakening privacy

• November 23, 2021 23 Nov'21

  Schrems accuses Irish DPC of trying to block publication of Facebook documents

  Austrian lawyer Max Schrems has filed a complaint after the Irish data protection commissioner put his privacy organisation under pressure to sign a non-disclosure agreement

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  Government to legislate to make APP fraud reimbursement mandatory

  UK payments regulator wants to reduce the huge sums of money lost to authorised push payment fraud and is calling on the banking and tech industries to play their part

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  AstraZeneca looks at the bigger picture in enterprise social media

  How do you work with people in different time zones and from different cultures and what happens when people leave the company?

• November 05, 2021 05 Nov'21

  Digital secretary calls for permanent online safety committee

  Digital secretary commits to establishing ongoing oversight of the Online Safety Bill and its implementation, and suggests the grace period on criminal liability for tech company execs should be shortened from two years to a maximum of six months ...

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  Facebook self-imposes facial recognition moratorium

  Facebook and Meta have committed to halting their use of facial recognition technology and deleting the biometric data of more than a billion people by the end of 2021, but will retain the underlying algorithms and software for potential use in ...

• November 02, 2021 02 Nov'21

  HSBC standardises on DevOps platform

  HSBC to standardise and automate software development through CloudBees platform

• November 01, 2021 01 Nov'21

  MPs and Lords grill Facebook over online safety efforts

  Facebook answers British lawmakers’ questions about the social media giant’s efforts to ensure the safety of its users, as part of legislative security of the government's proposed online safety bill

• October 29, 2021 29 Oct'21

  Facebook rebrands to Meta amid continuing controversies

  Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta to support its work on the next generation of “social technologies”, but concerns around trust and privacy persist

• October 19, 2021 19 Oct'21

  Zopa becomes unicorn with latest funds to go to bank operation

  Zopa will invest in its growing digital bank operation after becoming a unicorn in its latest fund-raising round

• October 07, 2021 07 Oct'21

  Twitch data breach investigations continue

  Investigations are ongoing into a 125GB data breach that hit livestreaming platform Twitch, apparently the work of hacktivists

• October 06, 2021 06 Oct'21

  Gaming service Twitch hacked, data leaked

  Users of livestreaming platform Twitch may be at risk after a 125GB torrent of data was leaked

• October 06, 2021 06 Oct'21

  Auto-enrolment begins for Google multi-factor authentication

  Google has started to turn on multi-factor authentication on consumer accounts by default, and aims to auto-enrol 150 million users by the end of 2021

• September 30, 2021 30 Sep'21

  UK consumers would collectively pay over £1bn a year for control of their data

  UK consumers are willing to pay a small fee per month to have control of the data they share with Google and Facebook

• September 29, 2021 29 Sep'21

  UK consumer trust in banks, retailers and telcos declines as scams increase

  Consumers are blaming banks, retailers and social media for the huge increase in online scams, survey shows

• September 28, 2021 28 Sep'21

  Digital regulators need discrete but cooperative remits

  The UK’s information commissioner has told MPs that digital economy regulators need discrete remits backed up by strong information sharing powers to both provide clear focus as well as allow for greater cooperation between their disparate but ...

• September 23, 2021 23 Sep'21

  Authorised push payment fraud sees huge increase as criminals switch tactics

  Criminals tricking people into making payments through channels such as fake emails and websites have stolen more money than payment card fraudsters

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  Dutch scientist receives top award for work on digital media’s effect on society

  Utrecht University media scientist José van Dijck wins the Spinoza Award and funds for her research into the effects of social media on society

• September 13, 2021 13 Sep'21

  The digital road ahead: National Highways puts technology in the driving seat

  We speak to National Highways about its multi-year plan to tech-enable the management and operations of our motorways

• September 07, 2021 07 Sep'21

  ICO in bid to end cookie pop-ups

  Outgoing information commissioner Elizabeth Denham will call on her equivalents across the G7 group of countries to collaborate on an overhaul of cookie consent pop-ups

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  WhatsApp fined €225m over GDPR breaches

  Irish data protection watchdog has issued one of the largest GDPR fines to date against Facebook-owned WhatsApp

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  Twitter tests auto-block feature for accounts at risk of abuse

  Latest Twitter feature automatically blocks abusive users, and is intended to help victims regain control of their experience on the platform

• September 01, 2021 01 Sep'21

  Tech sector spends nearly €100m a year lobbying the EU

  Study on technology firms’ lobbying efforts in the European Union shows the sector spends more than any other in trying to influence policies and legislation

• August 20, 2021 20 Aug'21

  Facebook vows to replenish more water than it consumes across its global operations by 2030

  Social networking giant is following in Microsoft’s footprints by setting itself a goal of becoming a water-positive entity by 2030

• August 05, 2021 05 Aug'21

  Around 75% of minority tech employees don’t feel a sense of belonging at work

  Research by Capgemini found just over three-quarters of global tech employees who are women or ethnic minorities don’t feel a sense of belonging at work

• July 29, 2021 29 Jul'21

  Investigatory Powers Tribunal finds UK spy agencies unlawfully collected personal data

  Campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty are gearing up to bring further legal action after a court found that UK spy agencies unlawfully collected phone and internet records

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  TikTok sets up cyber security hub in Dublin

  Dublin-based cyber centre will oversee the security of TikTok’s users across Europe

• July 22, 2021 22 Jul'21

  Plans to address legal but harmful content ‘threaten free speech’

  House of Lords report criticises the government’s forthcoming Online Safety Bill for imposing duty of care on tech platforms to deal with ‘legal but harmful’ content, which it says threatens freedom of expression online

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  Nordic banks join forces to compete with fintechs

  Collaboration will be key for traditional Nordic banks to retain business amid intense competition from tech companies

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  UK government publishes skills-focused anti-disinformation plan

  Online Media Literacy Strategy aims to train teachers and care-givers in understanding disinformation so they can help others in safely navigating the internet

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  Nordic fintech could lead the world

  Will the Nordics become the fintech and open banking innovation capital of the world?

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  LinkedIn denies exposure of 700 million user records is a data breach

  Data relating to 700 million users of the LinkedIn networking platform has appeared for sale, but the firm says it is the victim of data scraping, not a security breach

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  Zopa Bank to make profit in its first year

  Bank set up by peer-to-peer lending fintech firm expected to make a profit in its first year

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Google hands third-party cookies a stay of execution

  Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox initiative – which will see third-party cookies phased out in the Chrome web browser – has been pushed back to 2023

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Online Safety Bill unfit for purpose, says new campaign group

  Campaign group set up to oppose Online Safety Bill says the duty of care is too simplistic, cedes too much power to US corporations and will, in practice, privilege the speech of journalists or politicians

• June 22, 2021 22 Jun'21

  NSPCC, IWF help under-18s scrub their nude photos from the web

  Report Remove tool is designed to be used by under-18s to report nude images or videos of themselves that have appeared online

• June 14, 2021 14 Jun'21

  G7 commits to action on ransomware, digital privacy

  The G7 urges Russia to do more to hold criminal ransomware gangs operating from within its borders to account as it commits to more action on the issue

• June 11, 2021 11 Jun'21

  CMA secures commitments from Google on future of cookies

  The Competition and Markets Authority is opening a consultation on commitments offered to it by Google to ensure its Privacy Sandbox proposals do not harm digital advertising markets

• June 09, 2021 09 Jun'21

  Klarna takes on UK credit card providers with feature that breaks up online payments

  Fintech unicorn introduces feature to its app in the UK which will challenge traditional credit card providers

• May 27, 2021 27 May'21

  MP-backed push to stop tech giants claiming super-deduction tax relief thwarted

  Move to prevent the likes of Amazon using the government's new super-deduction policy to minimise their UK tax liabilities even further fails to win support in the House of Commons

• May 25, 2021 25 May'21

  Stockholm’s startup scene seeks more diversity

  Swedish capital has created a world-leading tech startup environment, but it still lacks the diversity of people needed to move it to the next level

• May 24, 2021 24 May'21

  How Virgin Atlantic used Workplace from Facebook to great advantage during the pandemic

  Virgin Atlantic was an early adopter of Workplace from Facebook. We find out how the collaboration tool has supported the airline throughout the pandemic

• May 20, 2021 20 May'21

  Pandemic tech use heightens consumer privacy fears

  Report on consumer attitudes to privacy finds evidence of a “heightened sense of fear” as digital footprints expand inexorably

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Irish High Court dismisses legal bid by Facebook over EU-US data transfers

  Latest twist in long-running legal battle sees Facebook lose legal bid to prevent the Irish Data Protection Commissioner suspending its transfer of data about European citizens to the US

• May 13, 2021 13 May'21

  Refuge launches tech safety site for domestic abuse victims

  Created with the help of survivors, Refuge’s resource site offers guidance on protecting yourself from tech-enabled domestic abuse

• May 12, 2021 12 May'21

  UK government publishes Online Safety Bill draft

  Bill builds on previous commitments by the government, which has added new measures to uphold democracy and freedom of speech while making tech giants more accountable

• May 07, 2021 07 May'21

  Reddit enlists HackerOne to run public bug bounty programme

  Online community platform is opening up its HackerOne bug bounty programme to any ethical hacker who cares to have a look under the bonnet

• May 06, 2021 06 May'21

  Government urged to add scam protections to Online Safety Bill

  Group of organisations calls for the government to use the Online Safety Bill to protect people from cyber scams

• May 06, 2021 06 May'21

  Tech startups turn to digital PR platform for media exposure

  Digital PR platform Newspage helps early-stage tech startups with limited resources increase their visibility to journalists and news organisations

• April 22, 2021 22 Apr'21

  ToxicEye malware exploits Telegram messaging service

  The Telegram instant messaging service is being used by malicious actors to manage a remote access trojan called ToxicEye

• April 18, 2021 18 Apr'21

  Government puts Facebook under pressure to stop end-to-end encryption over child abuse risks

  Facebook faces growing government pressure to abandon its plans to offer users end-to-end encryption to secure the privacy of their messages as the NSPCC raises concerns about child protection

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  Ireland’s DPC launches probe into Facebook leak

  The Irish Data Protection Commission has launched an ‘own volition’ inquiry into the leak of data from 500 million Facebook profiles

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  Covid-19 left people feeling vulnerable to cyber crime

  Around 15 million people in the UK experienced cybercrime in the past 12 months, with a cumulative 64 million hours wasted dealing with the fallout

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Egypt, Italy and US most affected in Facebook leak

  Researchers at VPN firm Surfshark have been analysing data on 533 million people leaked from Facebook

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  NCSC: Using your pet’s name as a password is very stupid

  If your email password is still Rex, Rover or Mr Fluffles, it’s probably best to change it, the NCSC has said

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Facebook ducks calls to apologise over huge data leak

  Facebook gives its side of the story as data on millions of its users leaks, but is yet to apologise for security lapses that put half a billion people at risk of compromise

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Digital Markets Unit starts work on codes of conduct for tech giants

  Digital markets regulator officially launched to ensure tech giants such as Facebook and Google cannot exploit their market dominance to crowd out competition and stifle innovation online

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  Facebook data leak could be outside scope of GDPR

  Regulators may be unable to do much about leaked data on 533 million Facebook users, as it seems to have been stolen before GDPR came into force

• March 29, 2021 29 Mar'21

  Big Tech eclipses telecoms and arms giants as biggest lobbying spenders

  Facebook and Amazon are spending more on lobbying and campaign contributions than any other companies in the US, including those in the arms and telecommunications sectors that have traditionally been the highest political spenders

• March 25, 2021 25 Mar'21

  Facebook disrupts Chinese espionage operation

  Social media giant’s in-house security team has tracked down and disrupted a long-running Chinese campaign targeting the Uighur Muslim minority

• March 12, 2021 12 Mar'21

  Web founder calls for ubiquitous, safe internet access for young people

  Internet access has a direct correlation to GDP. On the 32nd birthday of the world wide web, its founder calls for improvements to safe access

• March 11, 2021 11 Mar'21

  UK digital regulators set out plans to strengthen cooperation

  Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum outlines plans for the coming year, marking a shift towards a more collaborative regulatory approach

• March 09, 2021 09 Mar'21

  UK's Starling Bank reaches unicorn status

  UK app-based bank Starling reaches unicorn status following its latest round of funding

• March 03, 2021 03 Mar'21

  Pandemic brings good online sales growth for smaller retailers

  IMRG data shows smaller retailers did ‘astronomically well’ in online sales growth after Covid-19 took hold last year

• March 01, 2021 01 Mar'21

  What it means to be born digital

  We speak to Robert Wigley about his new book, Born Digital, which looks at the societal impact of Generation Z

• February 26, 2021 26 Feb'21

  Nordic startups strive to fuel international e-commerce transformation

  Nordic startups are developing technology for retailers that want to improve the customer experience when buying online

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Is Clubhouse safe, and should CISOs stop its use?

  With more concerns being raised over the privacy and security of social media app Clubhouse, we consider whether security teams should consider restricting or stopping employees from using it

• February 24, 2021 24 Feb'21

  Internet companies should provide real-time data on disinformation, Lords told

  Fact-checking experts tell House of Lords inquiry that upcoming Online Safety Bill should force internet companies to provide real-time information on suspected disinformation, and warn against over-reliance on AI-powered algorithms to moderate ...

• February 23, 2021 23 Feb'21

  AI powers reputational damage insurance policy

  Reputational damage has an immediate impact on a company’s share price, and brand loyalty built over many years can be lost in an instant

• February 18, 2021 18 Feb'21

  Swedish police fined for unlawful use of facial-recognition app

  Sweden’s data watchdog has found that Swedish police failed to conduct the data protection checks required by law before using controversial facial-recognition tool

• February 15, 2021 15 Feb'21

  Digital investments will add £232bn to UK economy by 2040

  The UK economy could grow by £232bn over the next two decades if investments in digital technologies continue

• February 11, 2021 11 Feb'21

  Verizon Business, Deloitte gain retail edge with 5G

  Operator’s 5G and mobile edge compute technology, coupled with IT consultancy’s retail industry and solution engineering experience, aims to improve store operating efficiency and enhance the customer experience

• February 10, 2021 10 Feb'21

  Dating app users warned to watch out for scammers

  A vast amount of money was lost to romance scammers last year, and with millions of people isolated in lockdown the problem is getting worse, according to a report

• February 09, 2021 09 Feb'21

  Facebook sued for data-sharing practices with third parties

  Data protection claim filed in London against social media giant for its alleged failure to give at least one million users in England and Wales meaningful control over their personal data

• February 09, 2021 09 Feb'21

  Data breaches are a ticking timebomb for consumers

  Damage from data breaches goes far beyond the impact to the target organisation – an obvious fact that is too often overlooked, says F-Secure

• February 04, 2021 04 Feb'21

  Revolut rewrites policy to include permanent remote working

  Challenger finance firm Revolut is redesigning its office spaces and introducing permanent remote working policies

• January 29, 2021 29 Jan'21

  Commerzbank announces big job cuts and branch closures

  German bank is closing hundreds of branches and cutting thousands of jobs as it reshapes for the digital age

• January 27, 2021 27 Jan'21

  Grindr complaint results in €9.6m GDPR fine

  Norway’s data protection authority plans to apply a fine totalling 10% of LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr’s revenues over its data sharing practices

• January 22, 2021 22 Jan'21

  ICO resumes adtech investigation

  The UK Information Commissioner’s Office was criticised for ending its investigation into alleged malpractice in advertising technology, but has now resumed its probe

• January 22, 2021 22 Jan'21

  Google threatens to cut off Australia

  Google’s threat to end its Australian Search operation comes in the face of new legislation that would force it to pay media publishers for news content

• January 20, 2021 20 Jan'21

  HSBC closing more branches as customers turn to digital channel

  Bank announces branch closures as it reshapes its network for the digital age

• January 19, 2021 19 Jan'21

  Click fraud levels reach new heights in pandemic

  Small companies risk losing £10,000 a year, and enterprises as much as £520,000, to cyber criminals as click fraud volumes spike

• January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21

  All EU states can take data protection cases against Facebook, says EU court

  An opinion from the European Court of Justice has the potential to lead to a flood of privacy complaints against Facebook if upheld

• January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21

  Court to rule on Facebook data sharing after Schrems drops legal challenge against Irish regulator

  Irish High Court says it will issue a judgment as soon as possible over a draft decision by Ireland’s data protection commissioner to order Facebook to stop the transfer of data about EU citizens to datacentres in the US

• January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21

  Parler collapse opens door to phishing attacks

  The shutdown of controversial social media site Parler, and the publication of huge amounts of user data scraped by ethical hackers, is giving cyber crime experts cause for concern

• January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21

  Tech sector reacts to Trump social media bans

  Facebook, Instagram and others moved to limit US president’s social media access after the violence in Washington DC, but experts have condemned them for acting too slowly, while disinformation about the riots persists

• December 29, 2020 29 Dec'20

  Top 10 financial services stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 financial services IT stories of 2020

• December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20

  Top 10 retail technology stories of 2020

  Computer Weekly looks at what 2020 had in store for the retail industry – just how did technology help retailers adapt to changing customer behaviour during the pandemic?