The ACCC won a major court battle over Google and its location data tracking in the federal court on Friday, with Google found to have "partially" misled Australian consumers. The case by the ACCC argued Google was in breach of Australian consumer law when it continued tracking location data after users had switched off Location History on their Android phones while another Web Activity setting remained on. Justice Thomas Thawley's decision found that some users would have been misled to believe such data would stop being collected with this setting switched off while others would not have, and found Google in breach of sections 18, 29.1.g and 34 of Australian consumer law. 

In other Google battles, last week we mentioned Brave browser opting out of Google's new FLoC advertising technology due to privacy concerns and it seems many others are also declaring they will block the trackers from their browsers. Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Edge, and Vivaldi in the browser space and search engine DuckDuckGo has also released a browser extension to block it for you. So it seems Google and its Chrome browser will be on their own with FLoC.

Back in Australia, the federal government on Friday announced it has selected 81 regional locations that will receive funding to improve wireless connectivity. A combination of federal, state and local funds will see $180M spent on improved infrastructure to suit the needs of the location, whether mobile coverage improvements or fixed wireless installations. Few details were offered at the announcement, with the government set to play the announcables game to be able to mention the funding as often as possible over coming weeks and months.

In an environmental progress report on Friday, Apple released details of its efforts to achieve a number of its own sustainability goals, from energy programs to changes in its manufacturing processes. The stand out detail is Apple claiming a saving of 861,000 tonnes of copper, tin and zinc ore by no longer including power adapters with its latest iPhones. The decision to leave out a charger came under fire and legal action in some parts of the world.

In tech pioneers, a fond farewell to Chuck Geschke who passed away at the age of 82 over the weekend. Geschke was the co-founder of Adobe Systems back in 1982 and served on its board until last year. He and his co-founder John Warnock created the software that built the desktop publishing revolution in the 1980s and the still critical PDF document format. Stories of his death widely speak of a humble and earnest business leader who will be greatly missed by friends and family.

In space, NASA has chosen SpaceX to fly humans to the moon once more. An exclusive contract has been awarded that will see a SpaceX Starship carry two astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis missions. Timing could be as soon as 2024.

In video games, Amazon has been forced to cancel the Lord of the Rings game it has been working on after a contract dispute with its Chinese development partner. The game was originally announced in 2019 as a free-to-play MMORPG. Amazon is still set to release its Lord of the Rings TV series which is currently filming in New Zealand and costs a reported half a billion dollars for the first season alone.

In esports results, the Nova Valorant tournament run by esports organisation Order resulted in a win for Order's own team which no doubt made for awkward glances for some, while Order also secured a 3-1 victory in the ESEA CS:GO season final against The Chiefs.

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