IT & Security News
Pollinger’s Productivity : August 2025
Age Verification on Socials and AppsThe Online Safety Act has intensified the spotlight on how social platforms and apps verify users’ ages. For years, companies like Meta have quietly used behind-the-scenes tools to detect underage users. But newer platforms are taking more overt approaches. Bluesky, for example, now relies on three third-party providers for age…
Wikipedia Loses High Court Challenge Against UK Online Safety Act
Wikipedia has lost its High Court challenge against the UK’s Online Safety Act, a ruling that could have far-reaching implications for how the online encyclopaedia operates in Britain and how the wider internet is regulated. What Was the Challenge About? The case was brought by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that runs Wikipedia, alongside…
UK Police Expands Usage of Facial Recognition Vans
The UK Government has announced the deployment of 10 new Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans across seven police forces in England, saying the move will help officers track down suspects wanted for some of the most serious crimes. What? On 13 August, the Home Office confirmed that vans equipped with live facial recognition cameras will…
HMRC’s AI Scans Tax-Cheats Social Media
HM Revenue & Customs has confirmed it is using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the social media accounts of suspected tax cheats, in what it says is a targeted approach aimed at tackling fraud and reducing the UK’s tax gap. Using Algorithms The disclosure came after recent reports in The Telegraph revealed HMRC was using…
Perplexity Makes $34.5 Billion Bid for Google’s Chrome
AI start-up Perplexity has made a surprise $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser, a move that has shocked the tech industry and raised questions about antitrust pressure, corporate ambition, and whether such a deal could ever succeed. Perplexity Perplexity is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, a former Google and…
Tesla Applies for UK Energy Licence
Elon Musk’s Tesla has applied for a licence to supply electricity to British homes and businesses, a move that could see the US-based firm directly enter the UK’s highly regulated energy market from 2026. What Has Tesla Done? The application was formally submitted on 25 July by Tesla Energy Ventures Limited, a UK-registered company under…
Back 2 Cyber-School : Test Your Team
UK firms are using summer downtime to run cybersecurity quizzes that improve staff awareness, reduce phishing risks, support onboarding, and build a stronger security culture ahead of the September reset. Why Summer Is the Time to Act It may seem counterintuitive to launch a cybersecurity initiative during the holiday season, yet security professionals say this…
Wi-Fi Warning: Staying Safe on Holiday
Business travel can expose individuals to serious cyber threats when connecting to hotel or airport Wi-Fi, so here we explain how to stay secure using practical precautions such as VPNs and mobile tethering. Why Public Wi-Fi Is a Hidden Risk for Travellers Public Wi-Fi is one of the most widely used digital conveniences among UK…
Summer Photos, Company Devices: Where’s the Line?
As employees increasingly snap summer photos on work phones and sync them to corporate cloud storage, UK businesses are facing fresh legal and data protection risks, so this article looks at where the boundaries lie, what the law says, and what employers should do next. Blurred Lines Between Work and Personal Life It has become…
Out of Office, Not Out of Mind: Cyber-Secure Holidays
In this article, we look at various ways staff can stay cyber-secure while away, from setting safer out-of-office replies to avoiding phishing on the move and protecting devices abroad. Out-of-Office Messages Can Put You at Risk Most employees see out-of-office (OoO) replies as a harmless admin task. However, the wrong message can actually open the…
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