Objections to Libra
Although the G7 group of countries has failed to agree on how to tax tech giants, they HAVE united against Facebook’s Libra citing problems with “anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, as well as consumer and data protection, cyber resilience, fair competition and tax compliance,” according to an ECB report.
The US and France have been particularly vocal in their criticism of Facebook’s new “stablecoin” and everyone seemed to agree that more financial innovation and cheaper international payments processing was needed.
A G7 working group made four recommendations.
Firstly, that stablecoins should meet the highest regulatory standards, which would involve proper supervision.
Secondly, there should be standardised legal cover and guarantees to protect all stakeholders.
Thirdly, there should be “operational and cyber resilience” and fourthly, the management of assets must be safe and completely transparent.
The Facebook Libra bun fight is only just beginning!
The dangers of new craze FaceApp
The second thing I wanted to mention today was the dangers of the FaceApp face-aging craze.
The “age challenge” that has gone viral on social media where you let the app have access to photos which it then “ages” artificially has pushed it up the app charts.
However, what people don’t necessarily realise is that FaceApp is made by a Russian company called Wireless Lab and when you sign up, buried in the Ts and Cs is the rather worrying bit that says that you are giving it “perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable licence” to use and reproduce your image.
Clearly, this looks like it could be a blatant breach of Europe’s GDPR laws – so watch out! You never know who could be using your photos..
