Australia extends tech giant probe to Google and Apple browser domination

ZDnet: 

• With the News Media Bargaining Code out of the way, the Australian government has moved its tech giant battle to the browser scene, keeping Google in its crosshairs while putting Apple under the microscope.
• Led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the new battle is focused on "choice and competition in internet search and web browsers".
• The consumer watchdog on Thursday put out a call for submissions, with a number of questions posed in a discussion paper [PDF], centred on internet browser defaults.
• It claimed Apple's Safari is the most common browser used in Australia for smartphones and tablets, accounting for 51% of use. This is followed by Chrome with 39%, Samsung Internet with 7%, and with less than 1%, Mozilla Firefox.

Microsoft and newspapers join forces to fight Google

Google accuses Microsoft of 'naked corporate opportunism'

• Google repeated how its against “proposals that would disrupt access to the open web,” believing that link taxes “hurt consumers, small businesses, and publishers.”
• The company then makes the case that Microsoft’s participation in the discussion is not being done in good faith, with “self-serving claims” that are “just plain wrong.”
• They have paid out a much smaller amount to the news industry than we have. And given the chance to support or fund their own journalists, Microsoft replaced them with AI bots.

Split Screen: How Different Are Americans' Facebook Feeds? – The Markup

Apple sues former employee for stealing trade secrets, leaking information to the media

Apple is taking legal action against its former materials lead, Simon Lancaster, over allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The lawsuit accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits.”

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