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LinkedIn has been fined $356 million in the EU for privacy breaches in its tracking ads

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View of main building with logo and signage at the headquarters of professional social networking company LinkedIn

Bad news for LinkedIn in Europe, where the Microsoft-owned social network has been reprimanded and fined €310 million for privacy violations related to its tracking ad business.

The administrative penalties, price roughly $356 million at current exchange rates, were imposed by Ireland Data Protection Commission (DPC) in accordance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulator found a variety of violations, including those referring to beaches, legality, fairness and transparency of knowledge processing in this area.

The GDPR requires that the use of non-public data has an appropriate legal basis. In this case, the justifications that LinkedIn relied on for its tracking promoting business were found to be incorrect. According to the decision, DPC also did not adequately inform users about how their information was used.

LinkedIn has attempted to invoke (different) legal bases based on “consent”, “legitimate interests” and “contractual necessity” to process personal data – obtained directly and/or from third parties – in order to trace and profile users for promoting behavior. However, the DPC found that none of them were valid. LinkedIn also did not comply with the principles of transparency and honesty under the GDPR.

Commenting in a press release, DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said: “The lawfulness of processing is a fundamental aspect of data protection law, and the processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis constitutes a clear and serious breach of the fundamental right of data subjects to data protection.”

The size of the sanctions catapults the skilled social network into the middle of the top 10 largest GDPR fines imposed on Big Tech. And while this is not the first time LinkedIn has been fined for regional data breaches, it’s definitely the most important one so far. (Though the company was keen to indicate that the amount of the nice was lower than the amount Microsoft imposed in an earlier 10-K disclosure warning investors it expected sanctions).

The case against LinkedIn began with a grievance filed in France in 2018 by the digital rights nonprofit La Quadrature Du Net. The NPA then referred the grievance to the DPC as a result of its role as the lead supervisory authority for Microsoft’s GDPR compliance.

The DPC initiated a complaint-based investigation in August 2018, before finally submitting a draft decision to other interested data protection authorities almost six years later (July 2024). As no objections were raised, the decision was finalized and its implementation made public.

In addition to the nice, LinkedIn was given three months to adapt its operations in Europe to GDPR regulations.

LinkedIn spokesman Jonny Wing pointed TechCrunch to a press release posted on the company’s website press room on sanctions, in which he wrote: “Today, the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) took a final decision on claims dating back to 2018 relating to some of our digital advertising activities in the EU. While we believe we have complied with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are working to ensure that our advertising practices comply with this decision within the deadline set by the IDPC.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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The documents show that X’s revenues in India dropped by 90%.

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X (formerly Twitter) logo on a cracked wall

X’s revenue in India fell 89.8% to $2.51 million in the fiscal 12 months ending in March, in response to regulatory documents filed by Elon Musk’s social network.

The company, which reported revenue of $24.7 million in the previous fiscal 12 months, also significantly reduced its spending in India to $2.2 million from $20 million year-on-year, documents show.

Despite a dramatic drop in revenue, the India unit managed to post a profit of $380,000 for the fiscal 12 months ending in March, down from $3.62 million the previous 12 months.

Musk had earlier identified India as a key marketplace for Twitter. In Musk’s earlier lawsuit filed against Twitter, he said he believed India was the corporate’s third-largest market.

It’s unclear why X’s revenues in this country have fallen so dramatically, but it surely coincides with widespread layoffs locally and globally. The downturn also reflects the platform’s global efforts to retain advertisers.

X didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Beleaguered startup Humane cuts AI Pin price by $200

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On Wednesday, Humane announced a $200 price cut for its flagship product, AI Pin. The Bay Area startup, founded by two former Apple executives, was reportedly struggling to sell the product, which was launched in April for $700.

In a message sent to its email list, Humane is announcing its recent returns policy. “Ai Pin starts at $499 and includes the first month of Humane Plan,” the corporate writes. “With a 90-day return period, it’s completely risk-free to try.

The device was poorly received by reviewers. According to reports, AI Pin returns began in August get ahead of salesleaving roughly 7,000-8,000 devices within the hands of users.

The company reportedly began considering a sale in May, admitting to poor reviews and poorer sales.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Andreessen Horowitz helps founders meet their compute needs with its “Oxygen” private GPU cluster.

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Andreessen Horowitz has a large cluster of Nvidia H100 GPUs which can be helping a portfolio of artificial intelligence startups meet their computing needs, the enterprise capital firm confirmed for the primary time on Wednesday. The program, called “Oxygen,” allows portfolio firms to coach or operate AI models without negotiating market rates.

A16Z’s Oxygen cluster gives startups a respiration space, so to talk, to compete with larger tech firms – like Google, Meta and Microsoft – in constructing large AI models. For several years, these firms have been engaged in a bidding war for AI industry standard GPUs, especially the H100, often winning contracts by promising larger and longer contracts. This leaves many AI startups out within the cold as they might not have the opportunity to tackle the massive contracts needed to secure GPUs, unlike the OpenAI and Anthropics of the world.

“It started with the realization that many of the AI ​​developers we serve every day had a common problem: We found ourselves in the middle of a supply crisis when the processing power of the Nvidia H100 card was in short supply,” said A16Z partner Anjney Midha, who helped create this system Oxygen in a podcast transcript provided to TechCrunch. “As startups, large clouds de-prioritized them in favor of larger customers, which was really difficult for them.”

Infrastructure can be a superb way for A16Z to draw latest startups. Companies constructing AI models often need unlimited access to very large compute clusters for brief training runs, but this isn’t any longer needed once the models are trained. Inferring AI models typically requires less computation than training, unless the usage of the AI ​​model explodes. A16Z’s Oxygen cluster gives startups the flexibleness to have access to GPUs once they need them and not using a long-term commitment to a cloud provider or an enormous outlay of cash. Instead, they provide A16Z a stake in their business in exchange for (amongst other things) low GPU rental prices.

But A16Z aren’t the one investors who promise startup founders GPUs along with financial capital and guidance in exchange for shares in their firms. Investment partners Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross offer their startups access to a 4000 GPU cluster in accordance with Forbes, it was named the Andromeda Cluster. Y Combinator also offers startups a GPU cluster for training purposes through partnerships with various cloud service providers, most recently Google Cloud.

A spokesman for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment on the dimensions of the Oxygen cluster, nonetheless A16Z could have the most important GPU war chest of any enterprise capital firm. Information in July it said Oxygen could contain greater than 20,000 GPUs.

At one point within the podcast, Midha claims that the Oxygen cluster could ease the pressure on AI startups to boost funds at inflated valuations to pay their computing bills. This is one other way oxygen advantages A16Z. Instead of investing more in a startup so it may buy GPUs from, say, Microsoft, A16Z can offer just the GPUs and invest at a cheaper price.

A16Z sees oxygen as a core value proposition for its startups, which can proceed to thrive so long as the AI ​​boom continues as predicted. This is probably going why the startup made the large investments required to secure these chips.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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