• Google has made an announcement that it is changing its default settings to automatically delete some of the data it collects about users.
• Web and app activity, including website searches,  pages visited and location data will now be wiped after 18 months.
• YouTube histories – including which clips were watched and for how long – will be erased after 36 months.
• The changes apply to new accounts only but existing users will soon be shown new prompts to adjust their settings.
• The announcement comes as Google and other big technology companies’ data-collection efforts and business practices face increased scrutiny.

• Twitch users are calling for a blackout and asking people to avoid the platform for a day in order to force the site to do more to recognise victims of sexual and racial abuse.
• Streamers are arguing Twitch has not acted quickly enough when there have been sexual assault claims made against some of its content creators and that the site has been too lenient when others have been accused of using racist or homophobic language.
• Stephanie Ijoma is a streamer who also founded NNESAGA – a UK gaming platform that helps promote diverse voices said “me being a black woman especially, I’ve never felt safe in such a toxic environment”.
• The CEO of Twitch, Emmet Shear, sent an internal email saying he’s looking at banning accounts based on their historical behaviour, and that he wants Twitch to become the safest place for people to create content on the internet.

• TikTok is today officially introducing a new brand and platform called “TikTok For Business” for all its current and future marketing solutions for brands. 
• The site will include access to TikTok ad formats, including its marque product, TopView, which is the ad that appears when you first launch the TikTok app. Other products under this TikTok For Business umbrella include Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges, and Branded Effects.
• The platform is also launching a new e-learning center that will help marketers learn about TikTok and its ad offerings. 
• TikTok’s Managing Director for Global Business Marketing, Katie Puris said “with the launch of TikTok For Business, we set out to embrace the creative, positive, and real moments that make our community so special with solutions for businesses to connect and grow with our wonderfully expressive community”.

• Research by data analysts Ceeda has said England’s early years providers are facing mass closures. 
• Nurseries have been operating at 37% of their capacity since early June when they were able to re-open.
• Providers will face huge losses if this continues at this rate, it said, and called for the government to step in.
• Ceeda data, published by nursery sector body the Early Years Alliance, suggests nurseries are set to lose more than half their funding (55%) for every government subsidised three- and four-year-old place. For every two-year-old place, they stand to lose 68%.
• Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said the situation was “simply not sustainable”.

• The Charity Commission has found serious shortcomings in management, oversight and staffing at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), which led to repeated incidents where young people in its schools and residential homes were put at risk, or suffered harm and distress.
• The commission said safeguarding should be a priority for all charities, and a repeat of the mistakes made by the RNIB risked a collapse of public trust in the voluntary sector. “Protecting people from harm is not an overhead to be minimised, it is a fundamental and integral part of operating as a charity for the public benefit” it said.
• Matt Stringer, the RNIB’s chief executive, said: “We are truly sorry for the failings identified in this report”.

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