Technology

The world’s most valuable brand is owned by a company that you likely interact with every day. In fact, you may have even gotten to this web page using it.

That brand is Google – and it dominates the internet with a 64% market share in search, while generating 41% of all digital advertising revenue globally. As Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, according to Brand Finance’s most recent 2017 list, Google’s brand value has recently increased to $109.5 billion, which is just enough to supplant Apple’s $107.1 billion brand from the top of the list.

Samsung has updated its privacy policy this week, reaffirming to its users that Smart TVs secretly listen and record customers’ conversations.  In 2015 Samsung confirmed that Smart TV sets listen to peoples conversations, and were forced to issue warnings to customers not to say anything confidential while near their TV sets. Theweek.com reports: The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share the information, including sensitive data, with Samsung as well as third-party services.

Japanese telecom giant Softbank - which owns Sprint - is reportedly looking at T-Mobile US for a merger. This would be the second attempt after 2014's approach was rebuffed by US regulators.

It appears the entire sector is bid on the news... even AT&T...

As Reuters details, SoftBank has not yet approached Deutsche Telekom to discuss any deal because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has imposed strict anti-collusion rules that ban discussions between rivals during an ongoing auction of airwaves.

Harvard scientists say they are on the brink of resurrecting the woolly mammoth which became extinct 4,000 years ago. They say the ancient beast will be recreated using genetic engineering where the ice age mammal’s DNA is spliced with an Asian elephant to create a hybrid. The scientist leading the “de-extinction” effort said a Harvard team is just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo.

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Source: Branco