Thursday, 25 August 2022

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Dennis here,

Google had better get its new advert feature together because the French are not having it.

The privacy advocacy group, noyb, has filed a complaint with France’s data protection watchdog, the CNIL, claiming the adtech giant has breached the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive rules on direct marketing.

Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.

Summary of the news

A new report shows that Nigeria could lead the global crypto adoption with a 100% rate by 2030
Google is facing a ‘spam ads’ ePrivacy complaint in France
Egyptian startup, valU has acquired Paynas to expand its BNPL product
Google Wallet has launched in South Africa

Nigeria to lead global crypto adoption- Report

New research reported has predicted Nigeria to be at the forefront of global crypto adoption by the end of this decade, Technext reports. According to data by Merchant Machine, if the crypto use rate in the country continues this, way, the entire population of the African country will be using digital assets by 2030.

The Merchant Machine study focused on finding countries investing the most in crypto by sampling different metrics from 50 countries. Specifically, the score factored in the number of crypto owners in a country, the global decentralized finance (DeFi) adoption index, the number of businesses that allow crypto payments, the number of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, and the monthly search volume of cryptocurrency terms.

Other countries on the list of crypto adoption predictions are the Philippines (86%), Thailand (64%), Malaysia (61%) and India (50%) with Nigeria leading the top five with an expected 100% crypto adoption.

The research indicates that the United States ranks top globally in the overall use of cryptocurrencies, scoring 7.75 out of 10. Ukraine ranks second with a score of 5.96, followed by the United Kingdom at 5.79 with India and Thailand occupying the fourth and fifth positions with 5.52 and 5.3 scores respectively.

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Google faces ‘spam ads’ ePrivacy complaint in France

Google is facing a fresh privacy complaint in Europe over ads it inserts into its Gmail email service in the guise of emails, TechCrunch reports.

Privacy advocacy group, noyb, has filed a complaint with France’s data protection watchdog, the CNIL, claiming the adtech giant has breached the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive rules on direct marketing by failing to gain consent from Gmail users for the ads it displays inside their inboxes, alongside promotional emails they have actually signed up for.

noyb’s complaint cites a ruling by the EU’s top court last year, in a separate case related to the use of email for direct marketing, which it argues makes it plain that ads which are displayed inside a user’s inbox constitutes “a use of electronic mail for the purposes of direct marketing” — which, under ePrivacy rules, requires user consent. (The Gmail advertising emails only distinguish themselves from genuine emails users have signed up for by the inclusion of an ‘ad’ label and the lack of a date-stamp.)

The complaint asserts that Gmail users did not consent to being spammed with Google’s ads — noting that, under ePrivacy, consent would have needed to be obtained prior to the ads being displayed in their inboxes.

valU, acquires Paynas

Egyptian buy now, pay later startup, valU has announced a complete acquisition of HR startup, Paynas. With the acquisition, valU can now combine its BNPL offerings with Paynas’s HR offerings allowing it to reach a larger audience.

According to Techpoint, in Egypt, valU, a fintech startup founded in 2017 to provide BNPL services in the North African country, has acquired Paynas, a human resource startup.

Before the acquisition, Paynas helped micro, small, and medium enterprises in the country to manage their HR needs, including attendance, vacation, leave, payroll, reporting, and analytics. With this acquisition, the company joins valU, where its services will complement the startup’s existing BNPL offerings.

Google Wallet launches in South Africa

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) launched Google Wallet in South Africa on Tuesday, as the tech giant tries to gain a foothold in the country's rapidly growing digital payments space, Reuters reports.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital transactions and people increasingly prefer making contactless payments via their smart devices. High smartphone penetration has also helped adoption rates.

The Google Wallet app stores a consumer's credit or debit card information and allows shoppers to pay for goods by tapping their phone against a retail store's point of sale at the checkout counter.

From Tuesday, cardholders of FirstRand Bank (FSRJ.J), Discovery Bank, Investec (INLJ.J), Standard Bank (SBKJ.J), ABSA (ABGJ.J) and Nedbank (NEDJ.J) will be able to add their cards to Google Wallet, Google said.