Match Group CEO Shar Dubey is speaking out against Senate Bill 8, the Texas law that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.  In a memo to employees Wednesday night, Dubey said that though the Texas-based company normally stays out of politics, as a woman and a mother she felt the need to say …

WhatsApp didn’t fully explain to Europeans how it uses their data as called for by EU privacy law, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said on Thursday. The regulator hit the messaging app with a fine of 225 million euros, about $267 million.  Partly at issue is how WhatsApp share information with parent company Facebook, according to the commission. The decision brings an end …

Twitter is working on a slate of privacy tools aimed at helping users manage their interactions on the platform, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg. The tools could include the ability to leave a conversation, hide likes, remove followers and archive older tweets. The report follows Twitter’s announcement earlier in the week introducing Safety Mode, a feature that can …

Twitter is rolling out a new way to try to limit “unwelcome interactions” in your feed, the company said Wednesday. Safety Mode will impose a seven-day block on accounts that use what Twitter called potentially harmful language. This could include insults or repeated replies and mentions. “Our systems will assess the likelihood of a negative engagement by considering both the …

Apple Wallet users in certain states will be getting the ability to add their driver’s licenses or state IDs to their wallets, Apple said in a blog post Wednesday.  Arizona and Georgia will be first in line for the driver’s license feature, followed by Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah.  “The addition of driver’s licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet …

Apple is making changes to how it works with news publications.  In a blog post Thursday, Apple introduced its Apple News Partner Program, which is aimed at subscription-based news publications already using its Apple News format. Under the new program, Apple is lowering its commission rate on “qualifying in-app purchase subscriptions” to 15%, down from 30% for publications’ first year.  …

Starting Thursday, you might see Reels pop up on Facebook.  The social network is running a limited test, putting Reels on Facebook in the US, the company said.  Reels launched on Instagram in August 2020 as a TikTok-esque way to post short, multiclip videos with elements like audio and various effects. The announcement also follows news in July that Facebook …

Music makers using Apple’s GarageBand for iOS and iPad OS are getting new tools from some industry names, like Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga. Apple is adding new sound packs and producer packs to GarageBand. This includes step-by-step instructions on remixing using songs from Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The producer packs …

A year-old watchdog group placed body bags in front of Facebook‘s offices in Washington, D.C., as part of a protest over disinformation on the social network. The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a group of critics that includes early investor Roger McNamee, staged the Wednesday protest as concerns mount about vaccine disinformation on the world’s biggest social network. The group released a …

In the future, you may be able to store your COVID-19 vaccination record on your Android device. Google updated the API for Passes to add this capability, the company said Wednesday in a blog post. This doesn’t mean you can upload your card yet. The updated API, or application programming interface, gives developers from groups like government agencies and health …