Shamayita Acharya

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Chem Ltd plans to more than double production capacity of battery cells it makes in China for Tesla Inc electric vehicles (EV) next year, sources said, to keep up with its U.S. client's growth in the biggest car market. The firm, a supplier for Tesla's Shanghai-built Model 3, will also ship its increased output from China as well as Korea to Tesla's factories in Germany and the United States, said two people with knowledge of the matter, signalling an increased role in the supply chain of the world's leading EV manufacturer. The plan comes as Tesla, LG Chem's primary customer, scrambles to secure cells as part of an aggressive global production expansion plan, as it targets soaring demand fanned by governments promoting EVs to curb air pollution. LG Chem has already added production lines in South Korea ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada plans to impose a tax on corporations providing digital services from 2022 that will stay in place until major nations come up with a coordinated approach on taxation, the Finance Department said on Monday. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is working on a common approach to ensure digital behemoths, such as Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc, pay their share of taxes as the coronavirus hammers budgets. Canada said it was concerned about a delay in reaching agreement. The threat of digital services taxes has prompted threats of trade retaliation from outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. The new tax would come into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, and remain in place until a common approach is agreed upon. The ... Read More on Datafloq

By Stephen Nellis and Uday Sampath Kumar (Reuters) - Zoom Video Communications Inc forecast fourth-quarter revenue above expectations on Monday but its gross margins fell and some growth metrics slowed, sending shares down 5.2% despite booming sales powered by working and learning from home. Zoom's user figures have spiked as a pandemic-induced switch to work from home encouraged more users of its video conferencing service to sign up for paid subscriptions. But that growth has come at a cost. While Zoom operates some of its own data centers, it also relies on cloud computing services from outside vendors such as Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp to keep up with rising demand. Those bills, combined with large numbers of free users, helped push down Zoom's gross profit to 66.7% ... Read More on Datafloq

By Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden was urged to reject the influence of Big Tech companies on his administration, by 32 antitrust, consumer advocacy, labor and related groups in a letter sent on Monday. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that more executives from technology companies than outspoken tech critics were named to Biden's transition team, offering clues on who will ultimately influence his administration's thinking. The letter urged that the Biden administration exclude executives, lobbyists and consultants working for or with companies such as Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet-owned Google, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp . The groups argue that the companies' business practices hurt consumers and the U.S. economy. Signatories include Public Citizen, American Economic Liberties Project, Open Markets Institute, Progressive Democrats of America, ... Read More on Datafloq

PARIS (Reuters) - Louis Vuitton LVMH is set to rejig the team that oversees its online strategy after Ian Rogers, recruited from Apple as the group's digital chief in 2015, left to join a French start-up focused on cryptocurrencies. Rogers said in a note posted on his Twitter account that he would remain an adviser to Paris-based LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group. LVMH, meanwhile, is set to promote Michael David, a Vuitton executive in charge of online retail at the brand, to a new group-wide role as chief omnichannel officer, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Omnichannel refers to the crossover of store sales and digital platforms, at a time when retailers are trying to blend the two together more seamlessly. Luxury brands were ... Read More on Datafloq

By Giuseppe Fonte and Elvira Pollina ROME (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's biggest sovereign fund is in talks with U.S. firm KKR to invest in Telecom Italia's (TIM) last-mile network in a deal that has drawn scrutiny from Italy's government, three sources close to the matter told Reuters. Rome typically welcomes foreign investments but demands assurances that investors will follow the country's national interests. The government has special vetting powers to block unwanted bids in industries deemed of strategic importance. TIM agreed in August to sell KKR a 37.5% stake of a newly created company, FiberCop, into which it has transferred its 'last-mile' network connecting street cabinets to people's homes. KKR now wants to sell up to 30% of the unit that will hold that stake to Infinity Investments, a subsidiary ... Read More on Datafloq

By Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. tech giants Amazon and Apple have not signed up to a new French initiative to get global tech companies to publicly commit to principles including paying their fair share of taxes, government officials said on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has sought for the past three years to cajole tech giants into collaborating with governments on a series of global challenges such as fighting hate speech online, preserving privacy or contributing to state coffers. Amid a public outcry about technology groups' good fortunes during the coronavirus pandemic this year, Macron's advisers said on Monday that the president had asked tech companies to sign up to a new initiative called "Tech for Good Call" underlining principles for the post-COVID world. The French government released ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Monday it would buy customer service startup Kustomer, as the world's largest social network forays further into e-commerce. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported about the acquisition, said the transaction valued Kustomer at $1 billion. Kustomer allows businesses to aggregate customer conversations from various channels into a single-screen, and also to automate some of the responses to buyers. The firm already offers its services on Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Earlier this year, Facebook launched Shops, a service that allows businesses to display and sell products across its platforms. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Ben Klayman DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co and Nikola Corp on Monday announced a reworked agreement on a fuel-cell partnership that eliminates an equity stake in the startup for the Detroit automaker as well as plans for building Nikola's electric pickup truck, sending Nikola shares tumbling more than 24%. In September, the companies announced a deal under which GM would supply batteries, a chassis architecture, fuel cell systems and a factory to build Nikola's proposed Badger electric pickup in return for an 11% stake and $700 million. But the deal came into question after a short seller criticised Nikola as a fraud, something Nikola has denied. The new agreement, a non-binding memorandum of understanding that doesn't expire until the end of 2021, is subject to negotiation and ... Read More on Datafloq

By Douglas Busvine BERLIN (Reuters) - Digital banking platform Solarisbank will enter a string of new European markets next year, CEO Roland Folz told Reuters on Monday, as it became the first German bank to shift its entire operation into the cloud. The Berlin-based startup operates a so-called 'banking as a service' model, enabling partners like South Korea's Samsung Electronics to offer branded accounts and financial products to their customers. Solaris said it had completed the migration of its core systems, digital products and databases to AWS, the cloud computing unit of Amazon, within a year of launching the project. That positions the provider of digital bank accounts and payment cards, know-your-customer checks and lending services to expand together with its partners into countries like France, Italy and Spain. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Helena Soderpalm and Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Ericsson on Monday raised its global forecast for 5G mobile subscriptions to 220 million by the end of this year, citing faster than expected uptake in China. The telecoms equipment maker, which had previously forecast 190 million subscriptions, said it expects China to account for almost 80% of the newly forecast total. "What has fuelled the growth is China, and that is driven in itself by a strong strategic national focus on 5G in China," Head of Networks Fredrik Jejdling told Reuters. Ericsson said in its biannual Mobility Report that 2020 had seen society take a "big leap towards digitalization", as the pandemic acted as a catalyst for rapid change and highlighted the impact connectivity has on peoples' daily ... Read More on Datafloq

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authority said on Monday it had fined Apple 10 million euros ($12 million) for "aggressive and misleading" commercial practices regarding its iPhones. The regulator said in a statement the company advertised that several iPhone models were water-resistant without clarifying they were only so under certain circumstances. It added that the company's disclaimer, saying that its phones were not covered by warranty in case of damage from liquids, tricked clients, who were also not provided support when their phones were damaged by water or other liquids. Apple declined to comment. (Reporting by Elvira Pollina, writing ... Read More on Datafloq

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union hopes Joseph Biden's incoming administration will clarify the U.S. position on digital taxation within two months of taking office, a French Finance Ministry source said on Monday. The EU is considering going ahead with a bloc-wide tax on digital services offered by companies such as Google and Amazon if a global deal to rewrite rules for cross-border taxation is not reached by mid 2021. Efforts at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to update the rules for the era of digital commerce stalled this year. Donald Trump's administration balked at the prospect of signing up to a multilateral deal shortly before the presidential election. EU heads of state and government are due to take a look at the situation in March and decide what course of action the bloc should take, the French Finance Ministry ... Read More on Datafloq

LONDON (Reuters) - British telecommunications firms must not install new Huawei 5G kit after September 2021, the government said on Monday, as part of a plan to purge the Chinese firm's equipment from high speed mobile networks. Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network by the end of 2027, falling in line with intelligence allies including the United States who say the firm poses security risks. China has criticised that decision, while Huawei said last week it was disappointed Britain was looking to exclude it from the 5G roll-out after the publication of new laws that could see firms fined 100,000 pounds ($133,140) if they break the ban. Monday's announcement comes ahead of a debate over new telecoms legislation in parliament and fleshes out the timeline for equipment removal. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Tesla Inc has obtained permission to start selling its Shanghai-made Model Y sports utility vehicle in China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the approval on its website on Monday. Tesla, now sells its Model 3 electric cars in China and has been building new car manufacturing capacity in Shanghai to make its Model Y SUVs. It applied for the Shanghai-made Model Y SUV sales permission earlier this month. It started delivering vehicles made in its Shanghai factory last December and sold more than 13,000 vehicles in China in October. The company has started exporting China-made Model 3 cars to Europe and said last ... Read More on Datafloq

By Alexandra Alper and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is poised to add China's top chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies, according to a document and sources, curbing their access to U.S. investors and escalating tensions with Beijing weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Reuters reported earlier this month that the Department of Defense (DOD) was planning to designate four more Chinese companies as owned or controlled by the Chinese military, bringing the number of Chinese companies affected to 35. A recent executive order issued by President Donald Trump would prevent U.S. investors from buying securities of the listed firms starting late next year. It was not immediately clear when the new tranche, would be published in the Federal Register. But the list comprises China Construction ... Read More on Datafloq

BERLIN (Reuters) - Trade union Verdi on Sunday called on workers at a German Amazon warehouse to strike for the second time in a week to disrupt the processing of orders following the 'Black Friday' discount shopping sales on Nov. 27. Scheduled to begin on Monday's night shift and finish at the end of Tuesday's late shift, the strike follows a three-day walkout between Thursday and Saturday last week in which more than 500 workers took part, Verdi said.. Verdi has been organising strikes at Amazon in Germany - the company’s biggest market after the United States - since 2013, along with other unions hoping to force the e-commerce company to recognise collective bargaining agreements that apply to retail employees at other firms. An Amazon spokesman said the company offered "excellent" salaries and benefits and safe working conditions, and that these ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Friday there will probably be a wider roll out of a new "Full Self Driving" software update in two weeks. In October, Tesla released a beta, or test version, of what it calls a "Full Self Driving" software upgrade to an undisclosed number of "expert, careful" drivers. "Probably going to a wider beta in 2 weeks," Musk said on Twitter, in a reply to a user asking if the software would be available in Minnesota. Musk had said earlier it was planned that the latest upgrade would be widely released by the end of this year, with the system becoming more robust as it collected more data. ... Read More on Datafloq

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Friday it had approved the proposed acquisition of French fibre optics operator by rival SFR FTTH controlled by Altice, Allianz and Omers, subject to conditions. The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-nation European Union, had concerns that the takeover would reduce competition in the wholesale market for fibre-to-the-office (FTTO) networks and could shut retail competitors from access to Covage's fibre capacity at wholesale level. Covage only sells fibre network access on the wholesale market, while SFR FTTH is active in both wholesale and retail markets. To address the Commission's concerns the parties offered to divest most of Covage's FTTO business and to offer assets and services required to operate this divested business for a transitional period. The Commission said that ... Read More on Datafloq

Organizations strive to gain a competitive edge in their industry by several means like strongly orienting their leadership strategy, empowering their branding strategies, and importantly nurturing technology-based competitive strategy. To perform the last aspect, they have to spend their time and resources in large-scale data gathering and analytics of competitive differentiation. And, to manage the process of competitive analysis, one has to deal with a tremendous amount of data that is available on various sources to get relevant competitive and market intelligence. But the main challenge for the organizations is to leverage this data for achieving their business objectives in the hypercompetitive world that we are in.Hence, in this article, we will understand the process of converting big data into an essential competitive advantage tool.Mine the insights with Artificial Intelligence-based Competitive Intelligence SolutionOrganizations begin competitive and market analysis with sec

By Sarah Berman VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A police officer stationed at Vancouver's airport who rejected a plan to arrest Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on the plane she arrived on two years ago will face more questioning from Meng's lawyers on Friday. Meng, 48, was arrested on a U.S. warrant on charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions. Meng has said she is innocent and is fighting the extradition from under house arrest in Vancouver. She was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 following a three-hour examination by Canadian border officials. The interrogation has become a flashpoint in the case to extradite her to the United States. ... Read More on Datafloq

LONDON (Reuters) - Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency is readying to launch as early as January, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing three unidentified people involved in the project. The Geneva-based Libra Association that will issue and govern Libra plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar, the FT said, citing one of the people. The move would represent an even bigger scaling-back of the project's ambitions than that proposed in April in response to a regulatory and political backlash against the project. Libra, unveiled by Facebook Inc last year, was relaunched in slimmed-down form after regulators and central banks across the world raised concerns it could upset financial stability and erode mainstream power over money. The Libra Association, of which Facebook is one of 27 members, ... Read More on Datafloq

By Julie Zhu, Yingzhi Yang, Zhang Yan and Yilei Sun HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd have each held separate talks with Baidu Inc to acquire a controlling stake in video streaming service iQIYI Inc, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. But the discussions have stalled with little hope of recommencing soon as they balk at a valuation of around $20 billion demanded by Baidu and as both companies, which have their own video streaming services, face heightened scrutiny by China's antitrust regulators, two people said. Another Chinese tech giant, TikTok owner ByteDance has also internally looked at the possibility of acquiring a controlling stake in iQIYI, three sources said. Considered China's equivalent to Netflix Inc, Nasdaq-listed iQIYI has a market capitalisation ... Read More on Datafloq

By Jack Stubbs LONDON (Reuters) - Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim's computer. The hacking attempts targeted a "broad set of people" including staff working on COVID-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful. The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did ... Read More on Datafloq

Data is growing. It has been growing since the inception of digital technology, and we continue to increase our reliance on cloud, even without noticing it. Everything that you save on your mobile app, most of it is instantly transferred to a cloud in order to keep your records safe and secure. In the event you lose your phone, you won’t lose your data, and so data has become invaluable to us. It has become a part of us. Our lives are made up of numbers and variables, along with behavioral statistics. Not only is it valuable to us because it is ours, it’s also valuable to companies that are invested in selling us the next big thing or convincing us that they have something that we need. Big data is the name coined to represent data that encompasses all of our online behavior. It can accurately predict what items we are in the market for, and when we’re most susceptible to making a purchase, therefore increasing its efficiency. Losing this data is losing the competitive streak that you

By David Kirton SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei called on employees of its departing Honor subbrand to strive to surpass its parent in a farewell speech as the tech giant sells the budget brand to keep its sanction-hobbled supply chains alive. Huawei Technologies said earlier this month it would sell Honor to a new entity called Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, formed of its agents and dealers, so it could resume sourcing components currently restricted by U.S. sanctions. The U.S. government says Huawei is a national security threat, a claim the company denies. "Wave after wave of severe U.S. sanctions against Huawei has led us to finally understand, certain American politicians want to kill us, not just correct us," Ren said, according to a speech ... Read More on Datafloq

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will impose a new competition regime next year to prevent Google and Facebook using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers. The code will be enforced by a dedicated unit within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which this year said it needed new laws to keep the tech giants in check. Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising, accounting for around 80% of 14 billion pounds ($18.7 billion) spent in 2019, Britain's competition regulator the CMA said. The two U.S. companies have said they are committed to working with the British government and regulator on digital advertising, including giving users greater control over their data and the ads they are served. ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it would spend more than $500 million on one-time bonuses for its front-line employees in the United States who are working the holiday season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Full-time operations staff in the United States who are employed by Amazon from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31 will receive a bonus of $300, while those in part-time roles will get $150, the online retailer said https://ift.tt/39mXC1B in a blog post. Several retailers, including Walmart Inc and Home Depot Inc, have spent millions in bonuses to compensate staff for catering to a surge in online shopping during the pandemic. In an earlier round of one-time bonuses in June, Amazon spent $500 million in one-time payments to front-line employees and partners. The world's largest online ... Read More on Datafloq

By Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said on Thursday its retail and professional-focused platforms were hit by tech problems, with users reporting difficulty trading as bitcoin plunged towards its biggest one-day drop since September. California-based Coinbase said on its website at 14:14 GMT it was investigating connectivity problems, adding at 14:42 GMT that it had identified the problem and implemented a solution. In a separate post at 15:21 GMT on its Coinbase Pro site it said "increased latencies impacting order entry and settlement" for its Coinbase Pro service, adding it was investigating the problem. A spokesman for Coinbase, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, declined to comment. Coinbase users on Twitter reported problems ... Read More on Datafloq

By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Corp said on Thursday it would spin off five affiliates into a new holding company next year, the latest reorganisation at one of South Korea's family-led conglomerates as they pass to a new generation of leaders. Analysts expect the new holding firm, to be headed by Koo Bon-joon, a son of LG's founder, will eventually be separated from LG Corp. LG Corp is led by Koo Bon-joon's nephew Koo Kwang-mo, who took over as LG Group chairman in 2018 after his father died. Around the turn of the century, LG Group and other South Korean conglomerates broke up into several companies led by children of the groups' founders. Now the conglomerates are passing ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's widely used cloud service, Amazon Web Services (AWS) was back up on Thursday following an outage that affected several users ranging from websites to software providers. "We have restored all traffic to Kinesis Data Streams via all endpoints and it is now operating normally," the company said in a status update. Amazon Kinesis, a part of AWS' cloud offerings, collects, processes and analyzes real-time data and offers insights. Video-streaming device maker Roku Inc, Adobe's Spark platform, video-hosting website Flickr and the Baltimore Sun newspaper were among those hit by the outage, according to their posts on Twitter. AWS said it had identified the cause of the outage and taken action to prevent a recurrence, according to the status update. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Yimou Lee TAIPEI (Reuters) - Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple Inc, said a person with knowledge of the plan, as the U.S. firm diversifies production to minimise the impact of a Sino-U.S. trade war. The development comes as the outgoing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump encourages U.S. firms to shift production out of China. During Trump's tenure, the United States has targeted made-in-China electronics for higher import tariffs, and restricted supplies of components produced using U.S. technology to Chinese firms it deems a national security risk. Taiwanese manufacturers, wary of being caught up in the tit-for-tat trade war, have moved or are considering moving some production from China to countries such as Vietnam, Mexico and India. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sarah Berman VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Lawyers for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will further press the Canadian police supervisor in charge of her arrest two years ago, as witness testimony in the case to extradite Meng to the United States continues. Defense lawyers are seeking evidence to back their claims that Meng's civil rights were violated in the lead up to her arrest by Canadian police at Vancouver International Airport, in an attempt to get the extradition case overturned. Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States. She is facing charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions. Meng has said she is innocent and is ... Read More on Datafloq

Guest Blog Shopify Development Keywords: shopify development company, shopify development servicesWhy Should Ecommerce Store Owners Choose Shopify Development?Today, digital retailing has become an attraction for people all over. Ecommerce these days has completely changed the business scenario. With this, there comes the need for the development of reliable ecommerce stores that display a perfect amalgamation of functionality and aesthetics. When one decides to make a presence in the online retailing sector, they happen to come across a pool of shopping cart platforms with promising performance. BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, and PrestaShop are some of the most famous ecommerce platforms. Other than these, there’s one ecommerce platform that stands apart from the rest of the crowd and that is Shopify. It is also the preferred choice for the sellers who wish for efficiency, quality, rich features as well as simplicity. This is the reason for the increasing number of Shopi

HONG KONG/ TOKYO (Reuters) - Bitcoin hiccoughed in Asian trading on Thursday to at one point stand more than 6% down on the day after failing to make record highs. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known crypto-currency, was last trading around $17,700, having lost more than $1,000 since its previous close. "With very high volumes on spot but also on leveraged markets, it's not surprising that after failing to hit the all-time highs, there would be this sort of rapid correction," said Justin d’Anethan sales manager at digital asset company Diginex. "While a quick visit in the upper or mid-16,000s is possible, we're still trending up and with plenty of upside potential," he added This year, bitcoin has risen 358.6% from the year's low of $3,850 ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday granted ByteDance a new seven-day extension of an order directing the Chinese company to sell its TikTok short video-sharing app, according to a court filing. The administration previously had granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of the order issued in August, which was set to expire Friday. President Donald Trump on Aug. 14 had directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days. The new deadline is Dec. 4, TikTok said in the filing. Under pressure from the U.S. government, ByteDance has been in talks for months to finalize a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to shift TikTok's U.S. assets into a new entity. TikTok declined to comment beyond the filing. ByteDance has made a new proposal aimed at addressing the U.S. government's concerns, said a person briefed on the matter who declined to detail that proposal. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Marine Strauss BRUSSELS (Reuters) - In an effort to avoid EU firms and citizens relying on data from Asian and U.S rivals, the European Commission is proposing new rules to allow sharing of public and personal data with businesses and research organisations. The European Union executive hopes that this could lead to improvements ranging from personalised health treatments, to better tackling climate change or developing precision farming techniques. "Data should be accessible and the sharing of such data should be secure," European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager told a news briefing on Wednesday. The Commission proposed a new model based on the neutrality and transparency of so-called "data intermediaries," which would organise data sharing or pooling, to increase trust. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Tech giants that break new EU rules aimed at curbing their powers could face fines, be ordered to change their practices or even be forced to break up their European businesses, the bloc's digital chief Thierry Breton said on Wednesday. Breton's comments come two weeks before he is due to present draft rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), which are likely to affect big U.S. players Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. The DSA will force tech companies to explain how their algorithms work, open up their advertising archives to regulators and researchers, and do more to tackle hate speech, harmful content and counterfeit products on their platforms. The DMA takes aim at online gatekeepers with ... Read More on Datafloq

PARIS (Reuters) - France's finance ministry has sent out notices to big tech companies liable for its digital service tax to pay the levy as planned in December, the ministry said on Wednesday. France suspended collection of the tax, which will hit companies like Facebook and Amazon, early this year while negotiations were underway at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on an overhaul of international tax rules. The finance ministry has long said it would collect the tax in December as planned if the talks proved unfruitful by then, which is what happened when the nearly 140 countries involved agreed last month to keep negotiating until mid 2021. "Companies subject to the tax have received their notice to pay the 2020 instalment," a ministry official said. France ... Read More on Datafloq

By Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) - Tesla Inc plans to start manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) chargers in China in 2021, according to a document submitted to the Shanghai authorities by the U.S. firm which is seeking to expand sales in the world's biggest car market. Tesla, which now sells its Model 3 electric cars in China and plans to deliver its Model Y sport utility vehicles in 2021, plans to invest 42 million yuan ($6.4 million) in a new factory to make the chargers, also known as charging piles, near its car plant in Shanghai, the document seen by Reuters said. China, which offers hefty subsidies for electric vehicles as it seeks to cut down on pollution from petrol or diesel cars, has been expanding its nationwide network of charging points, one of the biggest challenges to encouraging adoption of ... Read More on Datafloq

By Catarina Demony LISBON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest technology conference, the Web Summit, will return to Lisbon in full force as a massive in-person event in 2021 after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to go fully online this year. "The venue is booked," the conference's founder Paddy Cosgrave told Reuters on Wednesday in an interview. "I think by November (next year) the Web Summit will be happening in-person and I can't wait." The event, which moved from Dublin to the Portuguese capital in 2016, attracts about 70,000 participants every year, drawing speakers from leading global tech companies and startups, as well as politicians. But due to the outbreak, which has forced the cancellation or postponement of many major events, this year's Web Summit will be held online next week. ... Read More on Datafloq

Natural disasters, man-made disasters, pandemics, etc., are show stoppers to seamless business activity, state office transactions, and schooling. However, the show must go on as even one day of stopping the business activity results in unsurmountable loss. The Digital Workplace solution is the way forward in the future. It offers a future-proof solution such that you are socially distant yet connected to your globally scattered team. Here, business transactions can be seamlessly continued in spite of disasters and business disruptions.What is the Digital Workplace Solution?Digital Workplace Solution is your office that can be accessed from any remote location. It is mainly powered by cloud-based Enterprise Content Management (ECM) commercially off the shelf products. It also makes use of allied technologies, such as configurable workflows, business rules, intelligent data processing, robotic process automation (RPA), and artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML).The aforesa

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India banned 43 mobile apps on Tuesday, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's e-commerce app Aliexpress, in a new wave of web sanctions targeted at China after the neighbours' months-long standoff on their rugged Himalayan border. The 43 mostly Chinese-origin applications, which also include a few dating apps, threaten the "sovereignty and integrity of India", the technology ministry said in a statement. India has previously banned more than 170 apps, saying they collect and share users' data and could pose a threat to the state. The moves, which India's technology minister has referred to as a "digital strike", were initiated after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a skirmish with Chinese troops at a disputed Himalayan border site in June. The Chinese embassy in India said on Wednesday it "resolutely" opposed ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sarah Berman VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Testimony from the Canadian police supervisor who oversaw the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou two years ago will continue on Wednesday, with the defense expected to dig into the changes in the arrest plan. Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport by Canadian police, on a warrant from the United States. She is facing charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions. Meng has said she is innocent and is fighting the extradition, arguing that abuses of process occurred which should invalidate it. In particular, her lawyers have alleged that U.S. and Canadian authorities coordinated ahead of her arrest to use ... Read More on Datafloq

By Yingzhi Yang and Josh Horwitz WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - China's annual World Internet Conference is usually a forum for luminaries from the country's online giants and government bodies to discuss pressing issues of the day. But this year, few people spoke of what is expected to be a seismic shift for the industry - plans by the central government announced just this month that aim to rein in a slew of anti-competitive behaviours. The plans have been described by analysts as the first serious attempt on the part of Beijing's antitrust authorities to regulate the tech companies whose services pervade Chinese daily life, particularly Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. But despite the presence of top officials including the head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Zhuang Rongwen, and Liu Liehong, ... Read More on Datafloq

By Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean agency for protecting personal information on Wednesday fined Facebook Inc 6.7 billion won ($6.06 million) and sought a criminal investigation for providing users' personal information to other operators without consent. The country's Personal Information Protection Commission, launched in August this year, said in a statement it fined Facebook after a probe found that the personal information of least 3.3 million of the 18 million Facebook users in Korea were provided to operators other than Facebook without their knowledge, from May 2012 to June 2018. When someone uses another operator's service through Facebook's log-in, the personal information of the user's Facebook friends were provided to other operators without their consent, the commission said. The commission said it will refer Facebook Ireland Ltd, the recipient ... Read More on Datafloq

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - China's embassy in Brazil on Tuesday said a son of President Jair Bolsonaro had harmed relations between the two countries with critical comments about telecommunications equipment firm Huawei. The rift was the latest chapter in a battle between China and the United States over U.S. claims that China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is a security threat. The United States imposed trade restrictions on Huawei in September. Huawei has repeatedly denied being a security risk. Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son, has made statements that "darken the friendly atmosphere between the two countries and hurt the image of Brazil," the Chinese embassy wrote on Twitter. Brazil's right-wing government in early November joined the U.S.-led Clean Network, a digital alliance among more than 30 countries and big telecom ... Read More on Datafloq

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc, the largest U.S. home improvement retailer, on Tuesday reached a $17.5 million settlement to resolve a multistate probe into a 2014 data breach where hackers accessed payment card data belonging to 40 million customers. The settlement with 46 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., stemmed from a breach between April 10, 2014, and Sept. 13, 2014, affecting customers who used self-checkout terminals at its U.S. and Canadian stores. Hackers used a vendor's user name and password to infiltrate Home Depot's network, and deployed custom-built malware to access customers' payment card information. The Atlanta-based retailer previously said at least 52 million people also had their email addresses exposed, partially overlapping those whose payment card data was compromised. ... Read More on Datafloq

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's coronavirus tracing app needs to be made more compelling for users by offering fast-track entry to venues and queue jumping for events, according to a proposal by the government of Germany's most populous state. The proposal, which also envisages the app storing location data, highlights the authorities' concern at the spread of the pandemic outstripping their ability to track it. Like its many counterparts around the world, the app anonymously records near encounters with other people's smartphones, meaning people who have been in contact with someone subsequently tested positive can quickly be alerted to take a test or self-quarantine. Since launching in June, it has been downloaded more than 22 million times, meaning it is used by just over a quarter of Germany's 83 million people. Further installations should make it more effective. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Elizabeth Culliford (Reuters) - Twitter Inc on Tuesday released plans for its new policy on how people are "verified" on the site, an area the company has long promised to revamp to address confusion and criticisms over the blue check-mark badges it uses to authenticate the identity of prominent accounts. The social media company said in a blog post https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/help-us-shape-our-new-approach-to-verification.html that it plans to relaunch its verification program, including a new public application process, in early 2021. It said a public feedback period for the new policy would open on Tuesday and run until Dec. 8. Twitter said it paused public submissions for verification in 2017 after hearing feedback that the program "felt arbitrary and confusing to many people." It said at the time the check mark was being confused with "an endorsement or an indicator of importance." ... Read More on Datafloq

By Michelle Price WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Tuesday proposed a pilot program to allow tech companies like Uber and Lyft to pay gig workers up to 15% of their annual compensation in equity rather than cash, a move it said was designed to reflect changes in the workforce. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said internet-based companies may have the same incentives to offer equity compensation to gig-workers as they do to employees. Until now, though, SEC rules have not allowed companies to pay gig workers in equity. The proposal would not require an increase in pay, just create flexibility on whether to pay using cash or equity. It comes amid a fierce debate over the fast-growing gig economy, which labor activists complain exploits workers, depriving them of job security and traditional benefits like healthcare and paid vacations. ... Read More on Datafloq

By John P. Desmond, AI Trends Editor     Rising productivity brought on by automation has not led an increase in income for workers . This  is among the conclusions of the 2020 report from the MIT Task Force on the Future of Work, founded in 2018 to study the relation between emerging technologies and work, to shape public discourse and explore strategies to enable a sharing of prosperity.     Dr. Elisabeth Reynolds, Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future “Wages have stagnated,” said  Dr. Elisabeth Reynolds,  Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future,   who shared results of the new task force report at the AI and the Work of the Future Congress 2020 held virtually last week.      The report made three areas of recommendations, the first around translating productivity gains from advances in automation to better quality jobs. “The quality of jobs in this country has been falling and not keeping up with those in other countries,” she said.

By AI Trends Staff    Asked what in the march of technology he is most impressed with, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at MIT’s  AI and the Work of the Future Congress 2020  held virtually last week that he is struck by the ability of cloud computing to provision massive computing power.      Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft “The computing available to do AI is transformative,” Nadella said to David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT, who conducted the Fireside Chat session.      Nadella mentioned the GPT-3 general purpose language model from OpenAI, an AI lab searching for a commercial business model. GPT-3 is an autoregressive language model with 175 billion parameters. OpenAI agreed to license GPT-3 to Microsoft for their own products and services, while continuing to offer OpenAI’s API to the market. Today the API is in a limited beta as OpenAI and academic partners test and assess its capabilities.    The Microsoft license is exclusive however, meaning Microsoft’s

By AI Trends Staff     The pandemic era of increased remote work and powerful available AI is motivating IT departments to examine legacy software systems for renewal. A legacy application, as defined by Gartner, is “an information system that may be based on outdated technologies, but is critical to day-to-day operations.”    This process of renewal can also be called modernization and often involves a move from on-premises hardware to the cloud.    Diane Carco, President and CEO, Swingtide consultants “Getting rid of legacy is a perennial issue, but modernization is a top issue now more than ever,” stated Diane Carco, president and CEO of management consulting company Swingtide and a former CIO, in a recent account in  CIO .   According to  The State of IT Modernization 2020  report from IDG and tech company Insight, 26% of organizations are only at the beginning stages of IT modernization, and 19% have made moderate progress.    The first step of modernization is to take an