Hashtag Trending – Facebook facing massive fines; Amazon to sell cashier-less tech; Wrong place at the wrong time

Facebook could be looking at a massive fine over the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Amazon is looking to sell its cashier-less store technology, and an innocent Florida man’s legal ordeal in a geofencing operation.

Hashtag Trending on Amazon Alexa Google Podcasts badge - 200 px wide

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening.

Trending on Twitter, the Australian Information Commissioner is taking Facebook to federal court over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The 2018 data breach saw millions of private Facebook information collected without proper user consent. Now, the Australian Information Commission is suing Facebook up to $1.7 million for every account that was involved in the breach. Assuming the maximum penalty is applied to all of 86.3 million affected users, Facebook could be looking at an astronomical $529 billion fine.

Next, trending on Google, Amazon is considering selling its cashier-less store services to other retailers. According to a message to Reuters, Amazon already has signed several deals with interested parties. It has been testing its cashier-less checkout system for a few years now, and in February, it opened its largest automated storefront in Seattle. Unlike Amazon Go stores, however, the product in question, called Just Walk Out, requires customers to insert their credit cards before entering the store. All purchases would then be billed directly to the card.

Lastly, trending on Reddit, a Florida man was caught in an unfortunate case of geofencing. As part of a burglary investigation, the police used location data served by Google to identify potential suspects. Being an avid cyclist, Zachary McCoy happened to ride by the victim’s home three times at around the time of the robbery. This made him look suspicious to police, who then demanded Google to produce all details related to McCoy. Fearing that he’d be falsely charged, McCoy was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing, but only after a legal ordeal involving paying a large amount for a lawyer.

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Tom Li, thanks for listening.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada
Tom Li
Tom Li
Telecommunication and consumer hardware are Tom's main beats at IT World Canada. He loves to talk about Canada's network infrastructure, semiconductor products, and of course, anything hot and new in the consumer technology space. You'll also occasionally see his name appended to articles on cloud, security, and SaaS-related news. If you're ever up for a lengthy discussion about the nuances of each of the above sectors or have an upcoming product that people will love, feel free to drop him a line at tli@itwc.ca.

ITWC podcast network

Subscribe to ITWC podcasts and never fall behind on the conversation in technology again. Our daily podcasts are perfect to add to your smart speaker’s daily briefing or to your favourite podcast app on your smartphone. 

Cyber Security Today Podcast

#Hashtag Trending Podcast