In a bid to improve application safety across its ecosystem, and as part of Google Play’s latest policy updates, Google is preparing to get rid of outdated apps that have failed to keep up with the latest Android OS releases.
Cyber-flashing to Become a Criminal Offence
UK’s Online Safety Bill has provisions seeking to make cyber-flashing a new criminal offence with perpetrators facing up to two years behind bars.
India Proposes 30% tax on Crypto and NFTs Income and Seeks to Launch Digital Currency
On Tuesday the 1st of February 2022, the Indian government announced plans to impose a 30% tax on income gained from digital assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and will also introduce the digital Rupee starting in the financial year 2022-23.
Blackberry Sells Non-Core Patents for $600 Million
On the 31st day of January 2022, Blackberry announced that it has entered into a patent sale agreement with a consortium of companies under the name Catapult IP Innovations Inc, a Delaware company, pursuant to which BlackBerry has agreed to sell substantially all of its non-core patent assets to Catapult for total consideration of $600 million.
Ford Signs a Five-Year Payment Deal with Stripe for E-Commerce Drive
Ford has signed a five-year deal with fintech giant Stripe, aimed at bolstering the automotive giant’s e-commerce strategy. This agreement is seen as a move to accelerate the easy payment experience for the customers.
U.S. Democrats Sponsor Bill to Ban Online Targeted Advertising
On Tuesday, U.S. Democrats introduced a new bill seeking to ban nearly all use of digital advertising targeting on ad markets hosted by platforms like Facebook, Google, and other data brokers.
Microsoft to Acquire Gaming Company, Activision Blizzard
In what Reuters has described as the biggest gaming industry deal in history, Microsoft Corp is set to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device.
Visa Launches Cloud-based Payment Acceptance Solution
In what can be termed the future of point of sale payment, on 13th January 2021, Visa the launch of Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), which will let acquirers, payment service providers, point of sale (POS) manufacturers, and Internet of Things (IoT) players move payment processing software from being embedded in each hardware device to being universally accessible in the cloud.
Blackberry Finally Pulls Plug on its Legacy Phones
On January 4, 2022, Blackberry shut down its services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, and earlier versions. The update is notably not applicable to BlackBerry phones based on the Android operating system.
Google Acquires Israeli Cybersecurity Company Siemplify for $500M
In what can be considered as one of the earliest acquisitions in 2022, Google Cloud, a subsidiary of Google has moved to acquire Siemplify, an Israeli-based cybersecurity startup that specializes in end-to-end security services for enterprises, typically referred to as security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) services.