A National Advertising Review Board panel on Wednesday called for a halt to AT&T’s use of the “5G Evolution” label. The designation applies to AT&T’s upgraded 4G LTE network, which the company’s rivals slammed as “fake 5G.” Despite this, you may continue to see the “5G E” service icon on your phone. AT&T started using the …
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The US Department of Justice and multiple state attorneys general are reportedly preparing to bring another antitrust lawsuit against Google over its online advertising and search engine dominance. The suit could be filed in summer and would explore whether Google uses its dominant position to suppress competition, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed sources. “I’m hoping that we …
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Vivaldi now has built-in options for blocking online trackers and ads, a change of heart for a web browser-maker whose founder had hoped regulators would step in to protect privacy. The new features, designed to improve performance, too, are set to arrive Wednesday with the release of Vivaldi 3.0. The development of a version of Vivaldi for Android phones, the …
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For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites. AT&T’s booming wireless business wasn’t enough to shield the telecom giant turned media conglomerate from bad news in the first quarter due to the coronavirus. The company said the impact of the pandemic added costs and caused advertising revenue for its media business …
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Firefox users in the US will be able to read news on many websites with no ads for $5 a month — or just $2.50 a month in a promotion for the first six months — through a deal with startup Scroll. Mozilla announced the Scroll partnership Tuesday. It’ll be available through Mozilla’s Firefox test pilot program, which lets people …
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Two senators are seeking an antitrust review into Google’s search practices. Google’s digital advertising practices are already the subject of an antitrust probe by 50 attorneys general, and Sens. Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal want this extended to search. Google has dominance in advertising because of “its enormous search engine market share,” their letter to Attorney General William Barr says, …
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Ads can feel aggressive, especially when they’re served up by an app that’s not even in use. This form of advertising is prohibited by Google, and the search giant just banned a bunch of developers for it. Google removed nearly 600 apps from its Play Store, according to a blog post on Thursday. The company says developers of the software violated …
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When you download an app, the permissions requests and privacy policy are usually the only warnings you’ll get about the data it’s taking. Usually, you just have to take the app’s word that it’s grabbing only the data you’ve agreed to give it. Often, though, there’s more grabbing going on than you were led to believe, security researchers have determined. …
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The number of people using ad-blocking technology on mobile browsers has surged to 527 million, an increase of 64% over the last three years, according to a report published Thursday. Combined with ad blocking on personal computers, that means a total of 763 million devices were running ad blockers in the fourth quarter of 2019, the report said. That means …
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Google is putting new restrictions on video ads in its Chrome browser and on YouTube. Chrome will block ads that play in the middle of videos up to 8 minutes long, and YouTube won’t show those ads in the first place, Google said in a blog post Wednesday. It’s part of a gradual ad crackdown at Google, which wants to …
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