Yahoo and AOL acquired for chump-change, WhatsApp fined for breaching EU data privacy regulations, and eight states sign up to adopt driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet.
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It’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, September 3, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Yes, you heard it right! Yahoo and AOL have been sold again, this time to a private equity firm!
Apollo Global Management today announced that funds managed by its affiliates, the Apollo Funds, have officially completed the acquisition of Yahoo and AOL, formerly known as Verizon Media, renaming it to simply “Yahoo.” Verizon first announced in May 2021 it was getting rid of its Yahoo for $5 billion, ending an expensive and unsuccessful venture. Yahoo will now operate as a standalone company under Apollo Funds. Verizon has retained a 10 per cent stake in Yahoo.
Data Protection Commission (DPC) has ordered WhatsApp to pay a whopping $266 million penalty for failing to be transparent about how it handled the personal information of users in Ireland. The commission is an independent national authority responsible for upholding the individual’s right to data privacy in Ireland. In addition to the imposition of an administrative fine, DPC has also imposed a reprimand along with an order for WhatsApp to bring its processing into compliance by taking a range of specified remedial actions. This is the company’s first fine under EU’s GDPR law, under which violators can be fined for as much as €20 million or up to four per cent of their annual worldwide turnover, whichever is greater.
And lastly, Apple will let you keep a digital version of your driver’s license on your iPhone and Apple Watch in select states after a software update this fall. So far, eight states have embraced this new technology, according to a company announcement. The Transportation Security Administration will enable select airport security checkpoints and lanes in participating airports as the first locations customers can use their driver’s license or state ID in Wallet.
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. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Friday at 3 pm. If you have a suggestion or tip, please drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thanks for listening, I’m Tom Li.