UAE Non-Oil Business Activity Surges to Nine-Month High in December

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 The United Arab Emirates' non-oil private sector recorded its fastest expansion in nine months in December 2024, buoyed by strong domestic demand and increased business activity, according to the latest S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report. PMI Highlights Robust Growth The seasonally adjusted UAE PMI climbed to 55.4 in December from 54.2 in November, signaling robust growth well above the 50.0 threshold that separates expansion from contraction. This marked the third consecutive monthly increase, underscoring sustained recovery in the non-oil sector. Key drivers of growth included a notable rise in new business activity. The new orders subindex rose sharply to 59.3 in December from 58.0 in the previous month, reflecting strong domestic demand. Challenges Amid the Growth While domestic demand flourished, export growth slowed, with the export orders subindex dropping to a seven-month low. Additionally, businesses faced mounting backlogs due to capacity constraints,...
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Microsoft fined 60mn Euros for advertising cookies in France

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Microsoft

The US tech giant Microsoft has been penalised 60 million euros ($64 million) by France's privacy authorities for forcing advertising cookies on customers.

The National Commission for Technology and Freedoms (CNIL), which levied the biggest fine in 2022, claimed that Microsoft's search engine Bing did not have a framework in place that allowed users to reject cookies as easily as accepting them.

According to the French authority, investigations revealed that "cookies were put on users' terminals when they visited this site without their authorization, and these cookies were exploited, among other things, for advertising purposes."

The report "found that there was no button allowing to refuse the deposit of cookies as easy as accepting it" as well.

The CNIL claimed that the fine was justified in part by the advertising earnings the business made from information obtained through cookies, which are little data files used to track internet activity.

The business has three months to fix the problem or face an additional fine of 60,000 euros per day late.

The CNIL announced last year that it would review websites for a year to see if they were utilising web cookies according to the laws.

The CNI penalised Google and Facebook with fines of 150 million and 60 million euros, respectively, last year for violations of a similar nature.

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