News Every Day | 23 January 2022, 23:58

The Week Saw Big Tech Take More Hits, Amazon Flip Flop

It was a good week for cleaning up bad online content. The European Parliament approved the Digital Service Act (DSA) on Thursday (Jan. 20) by a landslide. This legislation changes the rules for handling illegal or potentially harmful content online, the liability of online providers for third party content and vetting obligations of third-party suppliers.

“We are now democratically reclaiming our online environment,” said Christel Schaldemose, a member of the European Parliament and proponent of this regulation.

This measure is relevant not only for all digital service providers, including social media and online marketplaces, but also for their business users and customers. The obligations are stronger for Big Tech companies.

In a record-setting decision, the Austrian Data Protection Authority ruled that the continuous use of Google Analytics violates the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a decision that could have a significant impact on U.S. cloud services.

That’s according to the privacy advocacy group noyb, which had brought the case before the authority and published the decision on its website on Jan. 13. The group, led by privacy activist Max Schrems, called the decision “groundbreaking.”

“This is a very detailed and sound decision,” said Schrems, whose group has taken on Apple and Facebook.

Learn more: Ruling: Google Analytics Violates Privacy Law

Over in the United Kingdom, heads were turned after Amazon — who had initially decided to drop Visa as a payment option in the U.K. effective Jan. 19 — changed its mind on Jan. 17, allowing customers to continue using their Visa credit cards.

Originally, Amazon said it was making the move due to the high fees charged by the payment processor.

While Amazon was dealing with its flip-flopping, the GDPR law has begun taking a financial toll on Big Tech as fines have soared nearly sevenfold in the past year.

Nearly 1.1 billion euros (about $1.2 billion) in fines have been levied for a wide range of infringements of Europe’s tough data protection laws, according to a recent 20-page DLA Piper report.

See more: Fines for Breaches of EU Privacy Law Reach Nearly $1.2B

Meanwhile, third-party payment companies rejoiced when Apple said it will follow a Dutch ruling to allow those options for dating apps, Reuters reported Jan. 15. This will be the first time the tech giant will allow outside payments within an iOS App Store app.

The company plans to release two “entitlements” exclusively for the Netherlands App Store, which will allow developers to add third-party payment systems for dating apps and direct users to the web to complete transactions.

Additionally, in South Africa, Google Cloud teamed up with teaming up Comair, operator of the British Airways brand and the Kulula budget carrier in South Africa.

The collaboration is expected to fuel the aviation group’s digital transformation plans and help the travel sector get back on its feet. In the Jan. 17 announcement, Comair said it has completed its infrastructure optimization plans by migrating six data centers to Google Cloud.

The migration of IT infrastructure will reportedly allow the airline to operate workloads that include secure customer records, financial data and airplane navigation info on the “cleanest cloud in the industry.”