Financial news

• Google settles privacy lawsuit for $68m over voice assistant

  26-01-2026 18:49 via theguardian.com
  Tech company denied illegally recording and circulating private conversations to send phone users targeted adsGoogle agreed to pay $68m to settle a lawsuit claiming that its voice-activated assistant spied inappropriately on smartphone users, violating their privacy.A preliminary class-action settlement was filed late on Friday night in the San Jose, California, federal court, and requires approval by US district judge Beth Labson Freeman. Smartphone users accused Google, a unit of Alphabet, of
  
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• Bank of Scotland fined £160,000 over account for sanctioned Putin ally

  26-01-2026 18:29 via theguardian.com
  Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, who had held senior roles in Russian government, used a variant spelling of his name to access UK banking systemThe UK’s sanctions watchdog has fined Bank of Scotland £160,000 for opening a bank account and processing payments for an ally of Vladimir Putin.Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, who became the first person to be prosecuted for circumventing UK sanctions last year, made 24 payments totalling £77,383 to or from a personal current account during February 2023. C
  
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• Polygamous working: why are people secretly doing two or three full-time jobs at once?

  26-01-2026 17:16 via theguardian.com
  Holding multiple jobs without your employer’s knowledge has boomed in the age of hybrid working. Is it a canny response to job insecurity – or a fast track to getting fired?Name: Polygamous working.Age: It’s really a post-pandemic phenomenon. Continue reading...
  
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• Aerial footage shows aftermath of fire at Greek biscuit factory that left four dead – video

  26-01-2026 17:06 via theguardian.com
  Aerial footage shows thick smoke billowing from a massive fire that broke out at a biscuit factory near the city of Trikala in Greece. The blaze left four people dead, according to the fire brigade Continue reading...
  
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• EU launches inquiry into X over sexually explicit images made by Grok AI

  26-01-2026 15:27 via theguardian.com
  Investigation comes after Elon Musk’s firm sparked outrage by allowing users to ‘strip’ photos of women and childrenThe European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok.The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discove
  
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• Ryanair says it could use Starlink in future despite Elon Musk feud

  26-01-2026 10:57 via theguardian.com
  Airline raises forecasts for profits and passenger numbers, after boss said spat with Tesla CEO boosted bookingsBusiness live – latest updatesRyanair would be open to using Elon Musk’s Starlink wifi on its planes in the future, its finance chief has suggested, amid a feud between the boss of the Irish airline and the world’s richest person.The airline would look at “whoever is the best, when the tech and price is right” for in-flight wifi, the Ryanair chief financia
  
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• DVLA revoked my licence, so I couldn’t drive to my dying daughter

  26-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  She had entered end-of-life care and I relied on my car to get to her, but it hadn’t returned the licence Our daughter, who has cancer, entered end-of-life care on Christmas Eve. I am a carer for her and her two young children.We both live in rural villages with no public transport options, so I need a car to get to her at short notice, but last summer, out of the blue, the DVLA told me I could not drive until December and revoked my licence. Continue reading...
  
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