EU reveals plan to regulate big tech companies

  • Big tech firms face yearly checks on how they are tackling illegal and harmful content under new rules unveiled by the European Commission
  • Fresh restrictions are also planned to govern their use of customers’ data, and to prevent the firms ranking their own services above competitors’ in search results and app stores
  • The measures are intended to overhaul how the EU regulates digital markets.
  • Large fines and break-ups are threatened for non-compliance
  • It is proposed that if companies refuse to obey, they could be forced to hand over up to 10% of their European turnover
  • “Recurrent infringers” are warned that they could be made to divest “certain businesses, where no other equally effective alternative measure is available to ensure compliance”
  • The two new laws involved – the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act – have yet to be passed, so would only come into force after the Brexit transition period has ended

UK Facebook users moved to US agreements

  • Facebook will shift its UK users onto agreements with the company’s corporate headquarters in California
  • The move could put UK users out of reach of Europe’s privacy laws
  • However, Facebook said there will be no change to the privacy controls or the services it offers UK customers
  • Currently, UK users are governed by agreements with Facebook’s Irish headquarters, but this legal relationship will change following the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU)
  • “Facebook has had to make changes to respond to Brexit and will be transferring legal responsibilities and obligations for UK users from Facebook Ireland to Facebook Inc,” the social media giant told Reuters, which first reported the story

Twitter fined €450,000 for breaking GDPR laws

Banks warn of Christmas parcel delivery scams

  • People are being warned to watch out for parcel delivery scams during the Christmas postal rush
  • Criminals are  attempting to defraud consumers by posing as well-known delivery companies, the banking trade body UK Finance has warned
  • Fraudsters have been sending emails saying they have not been able to deliver goods, and then ask for a fee to rearrange the delivery
  • They then try to extract financial details which are used to commit fraud
  • Customers are typically tricked into clicking on links to seemingly genuine websites requesting personal and financial information such as their address, date of birth, mobile number or bank details
  • In some cases, victims receive a call from the criminal later pretending to be from their bank’s fraud team, trying to persuade them to move their money to a safe account or reveal their pass codes

Birmingham Council questioned over its ability to protect SEND children

  • Birmingham Council has been questioned over when it will be able to  guarantee the safety of r children travelling on its SEND home to school transport, after a report was published into the service
  • The leader of the council has promised that there will be accountability for failures within the service, after a series of incidents at the start of the school year left many vulnerable children unable to travel to school
  • Speaking yesterday  (Dec 15) during a meeting of the city’s Cabinet, Cllr Ian Ward again acknowledged that the service had not been fit for purpose
  • Problems with the service were so bad back in September that one school was forced to close altogether, while there are also unanswered questions on how many employees of the service failed DBS checks

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