Tim Verheyden, a journalist with Belgian public broadcaster VRT, gained access to more than 1,000 audio files from a Google contractor. The contractor was part of a workforce paid to review some audio captured by Google Assistant, smart speakers, phones, and security cameras. While most of those recording were intended (for example, people asking for weather data), others were not.
Google announced that they are investing $1 billion in housing across the San Francisco Bay Area. They chose this location because Google is one of the Bay Area's largest employers. Google wants to help solve the problem of a chronic shortage of affordable housing options for middle and low-income residents. First, over the next 10 years, we'll repurpose at least
How stupid is this? Google has announced that from July, photographs will no longer sync between Google Drive and Google Photos citing "the connection between these services is confusing". What? Sorry, but how is this confusing? Images are synchronised between Google Drive and Google Photos. If you do something in one, it's also done in the other. How hard is that
Google is going implement Manifest V3, that will stop current ad blockers from working efficiently, on Chrome. Enterprise users, however, will be able to continue to use ad blockers. In short, if you want to block ads, and want to use Google products – you have to give Google some money. Google is essentially saying that Chrome will still have
Google has a sketchy history when it comes to privacy. It turns out that Google has been tracking a history of things you have purchased – even if you bought those things in a store or from Amazon. CNBC reported that there is a page called “Purchases” that shows a list of the things you have bought. The list can
Good news for Alex and Google Home users in the UK. The government's Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service have been working to feed the digital assistants with UK-specific information relating to government services. There are now over 12,000 pieces of information, including the minimum wage, applying for a passport and getting free childcare. Additional services will be added over time, such
The European Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for abusive practices in online advertising and for breaching EU antitrust rules. According to the European Commission, Google has abused its market dominance by imposing a number of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites which prevented Google's rivals from placing their search adverts on these websites. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “Today