The EU levied €1.1B in GDPR fines during 2021, up from €158.5M in 2020, led by the €746M fine on Amazon and €225M fine on WhatsApp (Stephanie Bodoni/Bloomberg)

Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
The EU levied €1.1B in GDPR fines during 2021, up from €158.5M in 2020, led by the €746M fine on Amazon and €225M fine on WhatsApp  —  European Union data protection fines targeting Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.'s WhatsApp helped push penalties to record levels last year …

Here's why UK regulator has fined Mastercard, other payment firms

Mastercard received the largest fine of 31.56 million pounds ($43.04 million). The other companies fined were allpay, Advanced Payment Solution, Prepaid Financial Services and Sulion. https://ift.tt/3fBqh58

African startup Finclusion Group, which uses AI to provide credit-based financial services, raises a $20M pre-Series A in debt and equity (Tage Kene-Okafor/TechCrunch)

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
African startup Finclusion Group, which uses AI to provide credit-based financial services, raises a $20M pre-Series A in debt and equity  —  The digital banking space in Africa is taking shape as neobanks on the continent grow in numbers like their global counterparts.

Binance conducted its first Binance Coin (BNB) auto-burn last quarter, removing over 1.6M BNB tokens worth $750M from circulation (Omkar Godbole/CoinDesk)

Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk:
Binance conducted its first Binance Coin (BNB) auto-burn last quarter, removing over 1.6M BNB tokens worth $750M from circulation  —  Token burns are supposedly deflationary and usually meant to bring a store of value appeal to the cryptocurrency.  —  Cryptocurrency exchange Binance implemented …

China leads in hosting DDoS cyberattack weapons: Report

China continues to lead in hosting the highest number of potential Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyber attack weapons, including both amplification weapons and botnet agents, to install modern malware on organisations globally, a new report showed on Tuesday. https://ift.tt/3Klgazr

Facebook-owner Meta has a new e-commerce director for India market

Meta (formerly Facebook) on Tuesday appointed Meghna Apparao as the Director of e-commerce in India to lead the strategy and solutioning that is focused on the company's e-commerce advertisers. https://ift.tt/33lFEfy

A flaw in Safari 15's IndexedDB API can leak browser activity and user identifiers, like Google ID, to other sites; Apple was alerted of the flaw on November 28 (FingerprintJS Blog)

FingerprintJS Blog:
A flaw in Safari 15's IndexedDB API can leak browser activity and user identifiers, like Google ID, to other sites; Apple was alerted of the flaw on November 28  —  DISCLAIMER: FingerprintJS does not use this vulnerability in our products and does not provide cross-site tracking services.

A flaw in Safari 15's IndexedDB API can leak browser activity and user identifiers, like Google ID, to other sites; Apple was alerted of the flaw on November 28 (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Emma Roth / The Verge:
A flaw in Safari 15's IndexedDB API can leak browser activity and user identifiers, like Google ID, to other sites; Apple was alerted of the flaw on November 28  —  check

Sources: Apple will expand CarKey availability beyond BMW by this summer, starting with Hyundai's Genesis line; a look at potential Apple headset names (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple will expand CarKey availability beyond BMW by this summer, starting with Hyundai's Genesis line; a look at potential Apple headset names  —  As Apple Inc.'s first mixed-reality headset runs behind schedule, here's a look at what the company could name the product.

Gurman: Apple's headset will likely cost $2,000+ and have two CPUs, one on par with the M1 Pro, two 8K displays, and an interchangeable prescription lens option (José Adorno/9to5Mac)

José Adorno / 9to5Mac:
Gurman: Apple's headset will likely cost $2,000+ and have two CPUs, one on par with the M1 Pro, two 8K displays, and an interchangeable prescription lens option  —  A Friday report indicated that Apple was having trouble with its rumored AR/VR headset due to overheating, camera …

UK government hires M&C Saatchi ad agency to run a publicity campaign criticizing Meta's plans to make Messenger e2e encrypted by default (James Ball/Rolling Stone)

James Ball / Rolling Stone:
UK government hires M&C Saatchi ad agency to run a publicity campaign criticizing Meta's plans to make Messenger e2e encrypted by default  —  The Home Office has hired a high-end ad agency to mobilize public opinion against encrypted communications — with plans that include some shockingly manipulative tactics

Amazon sale for Prime members: Earphones and TWS earbuds from JBL, Sony & others under Rs 1500

https://ift.tt/32LRrmk

A look at Cambodia's embrace of China's authoritarian internet surveillance model, as the country is set to launch a National Internet Gateway on February 16 (Charles McDermid/New York Times)

Charles McDermid / New York Times:
A look at Cambodia's embrace of China's authoritarian internet surveillance model, as the country is set to launch a National Internet Gateway on February 16  —  Under a new decree, all web traffic will be routed through a government portal.  Rights groups say a crackdown on digital expression is about to get worse.

US states, FTC initiate probe into Meta's VR business: Report

Signalling more trouble for Meta (formerly Facebook), several US states have reportedly kicked off a probe into anti-trust violations in its Virtual Reality (VR) division, which seeks to build Metaverse. https://ift.tt/3nqLQtu

BMC launches WhatsApp Chatbot for civic services

Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) - the country's biggest and richest civic body - just got smarter, too, with the launch of a WhatsApp chatbot to deliver various services to 1.80 crore people under its jurisdiction. https://ift.tt/327qFFm