Category Archives: google

Google To Pay Texas $1.4 Billion To End Privacy Cases



Google will pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to resolve two privacy lawsuits claiming the tech giant tracks Texans’ personal location and maintains their facial recognition data, both without there consent, Bloomberg Law reported.

Google announced the settlement Friday, ending yearslong battles with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the state’s strict laws on user data.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” said Google spokesperson José Castañeda. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

The settlement rivals the $1.4 billion Meta opted to pay Texas last year to resolve facial recognition claims involving its Facebook and Instagram platforms. That agreement, which involved just one case, was the largest ever obtained from a suit by a single state.

The two billion dollar settlements are part of a broader war against Big Tech by Paxton, who has touted his wins in a bid to challenge John Cornyn for US Senate. Paxton’s office has pending privacy or deceptive trade practices claims against TikTok Inc., Allstate Corp, and General Motors LLC.

Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton reported: Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a $1.375 billion settlement in principle with Google, delivering a historic win for Texans’ data privacy and security rights and marking the highest recovery nationwide against Google for any attorney general’s enforcement of state privacy laws.

In 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued Google for unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data. After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle Texas’s data-privacy claims against Google for an amount that far surpasses any other state’s claims for similar violations. 

To date, no state has attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations grater than $93 million. Even a multistage coalition that included forty states secured just $391 billion – almost a billion dollars less than Texas’ recovery. 

The Verge reported: Google is set to pay $1.375 billion to settle claims of data privacy violations brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a press release. 

Texas filed two lawsuits in 2022 against Google for “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data,” the release says. Before now, no single state has “attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product polices we have long since changed.” Google spokesperson José Castañeda tells The Verge. “We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”


Google Is A Monopolist In Online Advertising Tech, Judge Says



Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in some online advertising technology, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, adding to legal troubles that could reshape the $1.88 trillion company and alter its power over the internet, The New York Times reported.

Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a 115-page ruling that Google had broken the law to build its dominance over the largely invisible system of technology that places advertisements on pages across the web.

The Justice Department and a group of states had sued Google, arguing that its monopoly in ad technology allowed the company to charge higher prices and take a bigger portion of each sale.

“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” said Judge Brinkema.

CNN reported: Google has illegally built “monopoly power” with its web advertising business, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled, siding with the Justice Department in a landmark case against the tech giant that could reshape the basic economics running a modern website.

The ruling that Google violated antitrust law marks the US government’s second major court victory over Google in less that a year amid claims the company had illegally monopolized key parts of the internet ecosystem, including online search. And it is the third such decision since a federal jury in December 2023 found that Google proprietary app store is also an illegal monopoly.

Taken together, the trio of decisions highlights the breadth the trouble Google faces, raising the prospect of sweeping penalties that could reshape multiple aspects of its business, through ongoing and expected appeals will likely take years to play out.

Gizmodo reported: Google is starting to have a monopoly on getting called out for having a monopoly. For the second time in under one year, the tech giant has been deemed to be operating an illegal monopoly, this time for its online advertising technology.

Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued 115-page ruling on Thursday that found Google violated antitrust laws to establish firm hold over the online advertising space, allowing the company to charge higher prices and keep a larger portion of ad sales.

In his ruling, Judge Brinkema said that Google was “willingly acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” over parts of the web advertising business by connecting its ad server business, DoubleClick, used by publishers to sell ads on their platforms, to its ad exchange operations, Google AdX, which sells ad space off auction-style to the highest bidder.


Brussels Takes Action Against Google And Apple Despite Trump Threat



Brussels is pressing ahead with regulatory action against Apple and Google under landmark legislation designed to expose the groups to new competition, despite tensions with President Donald Trump over the EU’s tough regulations of US big tech, Financial Times reported.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, on Wednesday charged Google’s parent company Alphabet with breaking the Digital Markets Act.

In preliminary findings, regulators said they were worried that Google’s search engine preferred its own services over rivals, despite a series of changes to Google Search, as well as whether the company was stifling competition by making it difficult for developers to “steer” consumers to offers outside of its app store.

Companies found in breach of the DMA face fines of up to 10 per cent of global revenue, doubled to 20 per cent for repeat offenders.

Google said the commission’s decision “will hurt European businesses and consumers, hinder innovation, weaken security, and degrade product quality”, It added that the required changes for Google Search will “make it harder for people to find what they are looking for and reduce traffic to European businesses.”

The commission on Wednesday also ordered Apple to open up it operating systems more to connected devices, such as smartwatches or headphones from other brands. The decision could further force open the iPhone maker’s iOS operating system in Europe, despite a number of concessions Apple has already made to Brussels designed to head off regulatory action.

The European Commission posted a press release: Today, the European Commission adopted two decisions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) specifying the measures that Apple has to take to comply with certain aspects of its interoperability obligation.

Interoperability enables a deeper and more seamless integration of third-party products with Apple’s ecosystem. Interoperability is therefore key to opening up new possibilities for third parties to develop innovative products and services on Apple’s gatekeeper platforms. As a result, a wider choice if of products will be available to consumers in Europe which are compatible with their Apple devices.

The Commission is assisting Apple in its compliance by detailing the measures needed for enabling interoperability with iOS for third-party connected devices and by streamlining the process put in place by Apple to handle future requests for interoperability with iPhone and iPad devices.

Reuters reported: Apple was ordered by EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday to open up its closed ecosystem to rivals, with the latter spelling out the details on how to go about it in line with the bloc’s landmark rules and where non-compliance could lead to an investigation and fines.

The move by the European Commission came six months after it opened so-called specification proceedings to ensure that the iPhone maker complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which seeks to reign in the power of Big Tech.


Google Acquires Cybersecurity Firm Wiz For $32 Billion



Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has announced its largest-ever acquisition, entering into a deal to buy New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz, making it a part of its Google Cloud division. This is the company’s second attempt to buy Wiz after talks stalled last year at a lower $23 billion evaluation. The Verge reported.

Wiz is a fast-growing Israeli-founded startup that works with companies like Microsoft and Amazon to provide cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. The company was valued at $12 billion in May 2024, which reportedly climbed to $16 billion later in the year in an equity offering to employees, and has been working towards an initial public offering (IPO) in the months since the previous acquisition fell through.  

Should the deal receive regulatory approval, it will easily outsize the $12.5 billion paid by Google for Motorola Mobility in 2012.

“We expect this change to enable us to execute and innovate even faster,” said Wiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport in a blog post. “Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs: it will accelerate our rate of innovation after than what we could achieve as a standalone company.”

TechCrunch reported: Tuesday’s big news that Google is acquiring security startup Wiz for a record-breaking $32 billion comes with a big qualifier. Google says it will position Wiz as a “multicloud” offering, meaning Wiz will not be a Google-only shop.

The reality is that Google had no choice but to do this, and a close look at the reasons behind the decision also highlights Google’s weak spots in the months ahead.

Wiz brings a massive customer list to Google. As of today, the startup has already reached an annual revenue rate of $700 million. Before the news broke on Tuesday, it was on track for that to grow to $1 billion.

“Before the news broke” is the operative phrase here. Google and Wiz surely hope the acquisition will create an interesting new funnel of customers and revenue, but first and foremost, both will need to ensure they keep the existing customers from shopping around for another security provider.

CNBC reported: Google on Tuesday signed an “definitive agreement” to acquire Wiz, a New York-based cloud security startup, for $32 billion in an all cash deal.

The deal, Google’s largest ever, will bolster the company’s security technology in a world of advancing artificial intelligence and cybersecurity threats. Wiz will become a part of the company’s cloud business, and Google said it expects the deal to close in 2026.

“Google Cloud is a leader in cloud infrastructure, with deep AI expertise and a track record of industry-leading security innovation,” Google said in a release. “Bringing all this to Wiz will help make their solutions even better and more scalable, benefiting customers and partners across all major clouds.”


Google Proposes Alternative Remedies For Search Monopoly



Google has filed a proposal outlining how it would remedy the antitrust violation it’s been accused of by the Department of Justice, after the DOJ called for Google to sell off Chrome and face restrictions that would prevent it from favoring its own search engine in Android, Engadget reported.

Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in August that Google has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and called Google “a monopolist.” 

Google said in the proposal filed on Friday night that it disagreed with the ruling but suggested ways to make its contacts with browser companies and Android device makers more flexible.

In a blog post summarizing the filing, Google’s VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Ann Mulhollalland wrote that the proposal would let browser companies like Apple and Mozilla “continue to offer Google Search to their users and earn revenue from that partnership,” while allowing them to have “multiple default agreements across different platforms (e.g., a different default search engine for iPhones and iPads) and growing modes.” 

Google says it plans to appeal the judge’s decision ahead of a hearing in April, and will submit a revised proposal on March 7. 

Google posted on The Keyword: We strongly disagree with and will appeal the decision in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) search distribution lawsuit.

As the Court found, Google achieved its popularity and success through innovation: by building the best search engine and making smart investment and business decisions, like our early investment in mobile. People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to.

And what’s more, the landscape the Court evaluated is highly dynamic. Since the trial ended over one year ago, AI has already rapidly reshaped the industry, with new entrants and new ways of finding information making it even more competitive.

Today, we filed our own proposal based on the actual findings in the Court’s decision. This was a decision about our search distribution contracts, so our proposed remedies are directed to that.

TechCrunch reported: Google has offered up its own proposal in a recent antitrust case that saw the US Department of Justice argue that Google must sell its Chrome browser.

US District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, with the DOJ then proposing a number of remedies, including the sale of Chrome, the spinoff of its Android operating system, and a prohibition on entering into exclusionary search agreements with browser and phone companies.

As an alternative, Google proposes that it still be allowed to make search deals with companies like Apple and Mozilla, but they should have the option to set different defaults on different platforms (for example, iPhone vs iPad) and in different browsing modes.

In my opinion, it sounds like the U.S. Department of Justice wants Google to sell off Crome. I suspect this is going to be an interesting court case.


Gemini 2.0 Google’s Newest Flagship AI Can Generate Text, Images, And Speech



Google’s next major AI model has arrived to combat a slew of new offerings from OpenAI, TechCrunch reported.

On Wednesday, Google announced Gemini 2.0 Flash, which the company says can natively generate images and audio in addition to text. 2.0 Flash can also use third-party apps and services, allowing it to tap into Google Search, execute code, and more.

An experimental release of 2.0 Flash will be available through the Gemini API and Google’s AI developer platforms AI Studio and Vertex AI, starting today. However, the audio and image generation capabilities are launching only for “early access partners” ahead of a wide rollout in January.

In the coming months, Google says that it’ll bring 2.0 Flash in a range of flavors to products like Android Studio, Chrome, DevTools, Firebase, Gemini Code Assist, and others.

The production version of 2.0 Flash will land in January. But in the meantime, Google is releasing an API, the Multimodal Live API, to help developers build app with real-time audio and video streaming functionality.

Google https://blog.google/products/gemini/google-gemini-ai-collection-2024/ posted “Gemini 2.0: Our latest, most capable AI model yet.”

Today, we’re announcing Gemini 2.0 — our most capable AI model yet, designed for the agent era. Gemini 2.0 has new capabilities, like multimodal output with native image generation and audio output, and native tools including Google Search and Maps.

We’re releasing an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash, our workhorse model with low latency and enhanced performance. Developers can start building with this model in the Gemini API via Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. And Gemini and Gemini Advanced users globally can try out a chat optimized version of Gemini 2.0 by selecting it in the model dropdown on desktop.

We’re also using Gemini 2.0 in new research prototypes including Project Astra, which explores the future capabilities of a universal AI assistant; Project Mariner, an early prototype capable of taking actions in Chrome as an experimental extension; and Jules, an experimental AI-powered code agent. 

We continue to prioritize safety and responsibility with these projects, which is why we’re taking an exploratory and gradual approach to development, including working with trusted testers.

Engadget reported: The battle for AI supremacy is heating up. Almost exactly a week after OpenAI made its o1 model available to the public, Google today is offering a preview of its next-generation Gemini 2.0 model. 

In a blog post attributed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the company says 2.0 is its most capable model yet, with the algorithm offering native support for image and audio output.

“It will enable us to build new AI agents that bring us closer to our vision of a universal assistant,” says Pichai. 

Google is doing something different with Gemini 2.0. Rather than starting today’s preview by first offering its most advanced version of the model, Gemini 2.0 Pro, the search giant is instead kicking things off with 2.0 Flash. 

As of today, the more efficient (and affordable) model is available to all Gemini users. If you want to try it yourself, you can enable Gemini 2.0 from the dropdown menu in the Gemini web client, with availability within the mobile app coming soon.

In my opinion, it will be interesting to see what Google wants to do with its Gemini 2.0. It seems like several other companies are working hard to create the best AI bot.

 


Microsoft Says It Built An Xbox Game Store On Android But Can’t Launch It



A few weeks ago, Microsoft exec Sarah Bond said that in November, “players will be able to play and purchase Xbox games directly from the Xbox App on Android.” It’s almost December and the feature still isn’t live, but Bond says it’s not Microsoft’s fault, The Verge reported.

The problem, as she puts it, is that Microsoft would only be able to do it once a court order takes effect that forces sweeping changes for Google’s Play Store on Android, like opening it up to competition and ending the requirement for apps to use Google Play Billing.

On October 18th, Judge James Donato granted Google’s request for a stay while it appeals his ruling that the Android app store is in an illegal monopoly, which could leave things hanging in the balance for quite a while. 

Bond referenced that in a thread on Bluesky today, writing, “Due to a temporary administrative stay recently granted by the courts, we are currently unable to launch these features as planned. Our team has the functionality built and ready to go live as soon as the court makes a final decision.”

PureXbox reported: It was back in the early part of October that Xbox’s Sarah Bond announced a plan to bring major new features to the Xbox app on Android devices — specifically the ability to “play and purchase” games directly from it.

Google has issued a statement in response to Microsoft today, and it’s a frustrated one. The company claims that Xbox has always been able to offer these planned features via the Xbox app, and that Microsoft is “ignoring security concerns” that are related to the court ruling and the “rush to force its implementation”.

The TL:DR here is that we’re (seemingly) not getting the ability to ‘play and purchase’ Xbox games directly from the Xbox app until Google’s court appeal is sorted out, which could be well into next year if things keep dragging on.

As far as we know, Microsoft has never specifically explained why the Xbox app doesn’t support a mobile store-like feature at present, but speculation suggests it’s related to the desire to avoid paying a hefty cut to Google.

VideoGamesChronicle reported: In October, a US judge issued a permanent injunction ordering Google to open its Android marketplace to competitors.

The ruling, which was supposed to come into force this month, means Goggle will not be allowed to block the distribution of third-party Android app stores through Google Play.

Bond says that because Google requested an emergency stay — essentially pausing the ruling to give it time to appeal a ruling that says “threatens Google Play’s ability to provide a safe and trusted user experience” — Xbox can’t add its promised features until this is lifted.”

In my opinion, it sounds like Google and Microsoft are unlikely to have the desire to help the other company.