Facebook’s attempt to block a series of legal questions relating to a long-running EU privacy case from being referred to Europe’s top court has been throw out by Ireland’s High Court. Earlier this week the company’s lawyers had asked the Irish High Court to stay the referral to the CJEU of a number of key legal questions pertaining to existing data transfer mechanisms that are being used by thousands of companies (Facebook included) to authorize flows of personal data outside the bloc. Both the lawfulness of Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Privacy Shield mechanism are now facing questions as a…
Author: geekfenceblogger
Car makers BMW, General Motors, Ford and Renault are the big names behind a new group announced today to explore the potential of the blockchain in the automotive and mobility space. MOBI — the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative — launches today with over 30 founding members that also include Bosch, Blockchain at Berkeley, Hyperledger, Fetch.ai, IBM and IOTA. The group has a fairly broad goal of making transportation “safer, more affordable, and more widely accessible using blockchain technology.” The blockchain has the undoubted potential to impact a range of industries. The distributed ledger component and smart contracts, in particular, could reshape the way organizations and…
European dating giant Badoo has added a live video chat feature to its apps, giving users the chance to talk face-to-face with matches from the comfort of their own home — and even before agreeing to go out on a first date. It’s claiming it’s the first dating app service to add a live video feature, though clearly major players in the space were not holding back because of the complexity of the technical challenge involved. Rather live video in a dating app context raises some immediate risk flags, including around inappropriate behavior which could put off users. And for…
In the world of DevOps, developers ship code and operations deals with all the managing, monitoring and troubleshooting, but Google Cloud has found that it sometimes it makes more sense to put some of these responsibilities back in the hands of the developers. Today, the company announced the Beta release of Stackdriver Kubernetes Monitoring, a tool designed to give developers a comprehensive way of checking the health of their Kubernetes applications. The company made the announcement at Kubecon, the conference related to all things Kubernetes going on this week in Copenhagen. Arpana Sinha, who is the group product manager for…
Poq, the London-based startup that offers a SaaS to make it easier for retailers to launch and maintain a consumer-facing shopping app, has raised £9.5 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is Smedvig Capital, with participation from previous backers Beringea, and Revolt Ventures. It brings the total amount raised by Poq to £16.5 million since the company was founded in 2011. A fairly early entrant into the so-called ‘apps-as-a-service’ space, Poq’s pitch is that it enables retailers — with a particular focus on ‘pureplay’ or multichannel brands — to create their own e-commerce app at a fraction of…
Nokia’s unsuccessful foray into digital health hardware and services looks like it is finally coming to an end. Today the company announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell the division to Eric Carreel, the co-founder and former chairman of Withings, after both Samsung and Google both reportedly also sniffed around. Withings formed the core of the division after Nokia acquired the French startup in 2016 for €170 million. “Nokia announced a review of strategic options for the Digital Health business in February 2018. The planned sale is part of Nokia’s honed focus on becoming a business-to-business and licensing…
Zinc, the London-based company builder tackling various societal problems, has picked up £3 million in seed investment as it readies its second cohort and mission. Backing the round is LocalGlobe, Niklas Zennström’s Atomico, U.K. university LSE, and a number of angel investors. Launched late last year, Zinc helps build startups almost from scratch. Somewhat similar to Entrepreneur First, it focuses on recruiting potential founders — in this instance, experts in social science, technology, design and business — who through the 9-month programme form new companies. Each Zinc cohort is tasked with tackling a specific mission around a broader theme. The…
2,000 square metre pavilion tells the story of the country’s protection of its people and territory
Timing of an IPO is yet to be determined, according to Finablr executive director Promoth Manghat
Incentives provider offers lifestyle savings to consumers in 15 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa