Comment on AT&T to sell most of Yellow Pages to Cerberus

The UK’s data watchdog has restarted an investigation of adtech practices that, since 2018, have been subject to scores of complaints across Europe under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The high velocity trading of Internet users’ personal data can’t possibly be compliant with GDPR’s requirement that such information is adequately secured, the complaints contend. Other concerns attached to real-time bidding (RTB) focus on consent, questioning how this can meet the required legal standard with data being broadcast to so many companies — including sensitive information, such as health data or religious and political affiliation and sexual orientation. Since the first complaints were filed the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has raised its own concerns over what it said are systemic problems with lawfulness in the adtech sector.

Apple is said to be working on a new version of the MacBook Air with a brand new physical case design that’s both thinner and lighter than its current offering, which was updated with Apple’s M1 chip late last year, per a new Bloomberg report. The plan is to release it as early as late 2021 or 2022, according to the report’s sources, and it will also include MagSafe charging (which is also said to be returning on Apple’s next MacBook Pro models sometime in 2021). MagSafe would offer power delivery and charging, while two USB 4 ports would provide data connectivity on the new MacBook Air.

Fitness apps are relying on the tried-and-true subscription model to encourage people to keep their New Year's Resolutions — or at least to keep paying.

HOUSE OF THE WEEK | The riverfront estate has been the longtime home of the American Horticultural Society.

The European Parliament is being investigated by the EU’s lead data regulator over a complaint that a website it set up for MEPs to book coronavirus tests may have violated data protection laws. The complaint, which has been filed by six MEPs and is being supported by the privacy campaign group noyb, alleges third party trackers were dropped without proper consent and that cookie banners presented to visitors were confusing and deceptively designed. It also alleges personal data was transferred to the US without a valid legal basis, making reference to a landmark legal ruling by Europe’s top court last summer (aka Schrems II). The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), which oversees EU institutions’ compliance with data rules, confirmed receipt of the complaint and said it has begun investigating. It also said the “litigious cookies” had been disabled following the complaints, adding that the parliament told it no user data had in fact been transferred outside the EU. “A complaint was indeed filed by some MEPs about the European Parliament’s coronavirus testing website; the EDPS has started investigating it in accordance with Article 57(1)(e) EUDPR (GDPR for EU institutions),” an EDPS spokesman told TechCrunch.

As countries around the world prepare to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, tech companies are rushing to demonstrate their willingness to help fight the deadly virus. China’s ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing is pledging a $10 million fund to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts in 13 markets outside its home country China, the company said on Friday. The multi-purpose fund will be used to reduce fees for passengers going to vaccination appointments and frontline healthcare workers traveling to vaccination locations.