company

If the question is whether your company can include you in a work WhatsApp group, the AEPD leaves no doubt: it depends on who pays

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In many companies, WhatsApp groups or from any other social network, they have adopted the role of a communication board, from which the company or those responsible for employees They organize shiftsroutes or vacations of its employees from a single channel. However, despite being very convenient for the organization of the company, adding employees to These groups It is an exhibition of your private data. Is it legal that the company includes you in one of these Work groups of work? The answer: depends d. Use of WhatsApp on personal mobiles The Spanish Agency for Data Protection, supported by a sentence of the 2019 National Court established the pillars of the use of mobile devices in the workplace, indicating that employees are not obliged to use or install applications for professional use. That is, if the mobile in which the line that will be included in the WhatsApp group is personal, or the line itself is, is installed, or The company cannot force the worker to be part of the group. Including that number in a WhatsApp group without the express consent of the employee would violate article 5 of the Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rightsviolating the right to individual privacy. The legal protection of this assumption was reinforced with the arrival of the Teleworking 10/2021that in its article 17.2 it indicates that it is the company who must provide any material or device that employees may need to develop their work. If to develop that work, the employee needs a mobile with line for communications with the company, or for the time registrationyou must facilitate it. Use of WhatsApp in the company’s mobile The scenario changes completely when the mobile or line is owned by the company, not the employee. In that case, the company can use that resource as it creates convenient and may include those lines in a WhatsApp group, without the employee being able to refuse to it. This use is part of the organization of work by the company according to the Workers Statute. However, the company must justify the group’s need, assume the cost of the line and establish clear rules on its use. Right to digital disconnection In any case, whether the mobile is personal and has the employee’s consent, as if it is a corporate mobile, The right to digital disconnection must be respectedas established in article 20 bis of the Statute of Workers and in article 18 of the Teleworking Law. This section specifically indicates: “Workers have the right to privacy in the use of digital devices made available to the employer, to digital disconnection and intimacy in the use of video surveillance and geolocation devices in the established terms in current legislation on personal data protection and guarantee of digital rights. “ This means that, in any of the cases, the worker is not obliged to answer Out of your working hours, unless it is subject to any of the exceptions due to justified urgency. This right is protected by various labor laws and their breach would result in economic sanctions for the company that could range between 751 euros and 7,500 euros. In Xataka | Signing with the fingerprint at work was legal. In Europe they have decided that they are no longer and threaten to fine Image | Unspash (Dimitri Karastelev)

Novo Energy wanted to stand up to Chinese batteries for electric cars. It has ended in the hands of a Chinese company

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Point and apart for the soap opera of the Great European hope In the battery segment for electric cars. In the European assault on electric car industryVolvo and the Northvolt battery manufacturer founded Novo Energy. Both were Swedish and it was a Join Venture with the aim of producing batteries in Europe. It seemed that everything was going to be A ROSA pathbut a few years later and after thousands of layoffsNorthvolt sell His participation in Novo Energy A Volvo. And behind Volvo is Geelyan important Chinese holding. Culebrón. Things stopped going well for Northvolt practically from the beginning. During the first years, the European Investment Bank, BMW, Goldman Sachs or Volkswagen invested sums of hundreds of millions of euros in the company. The Swedish company, founded by two Exegutive of Tesla, became the great European promise to create batteries and be the heart of that European flying towards the electric car. In a market increasingly controlled by ChinaIt seemed like a great idea and everything pointed in good sense. In addition, together with Volvo they founded Novo Energy in 2021 to produce the batteries of both Volvo and Polestar. However, things began to twist in 2023, when it was uncovered that the company had been operating with losses of 1,000 million dollars during the first nine months of the year. And, in 2024, the situation exploded. Last nail in the coffin. Everything happened very fast. After the delays in the delivery dates, BMW canceled its agreement of 2,000 million euros, there were a series of employee deaths in work shifts, fired more than 1,600 workers in September and, shortly after, the bankruptcy arrived. In November 2024, Northvolt requested bankruptcy protectionarguing that they had 30 million in cash and, with them, they could only operate for a week. The hole they had was 5.8 billion dollars. A skinny dog, everything is fleas, and a day later one of the founders resigned, arguing that the company would need 1.2 billion dollars to save itself. After a few days of 2025 in which the company was still looking for financing, something that nobody seemed willing to do, sales arrived. It was even rumored that Catl, the main Chinese rival in battery manufacturing, I could give a hand. Volvo. After getting rid of some services, this January 29 we learned that the Swedish company sold its participation in Novo Energy to its partner in this adventure, Volvo. It is something that does not catch by surprise, since, as with BMW, Volvo saw that Northvolt’s delivery plans were not being fulfilled and in October last year he showed his interest in acquiring participation in Novo. Last week, Novo Energy advertisement which had to reduce its workforce by 30% due to “the changing market conditions and a modified business plan”. Northvolt wants to reduce everything possible and focus on its Swedish plant, but they have also signed an agreement with Volvo to explore joint collaboration paths in the future, so everything is not lost. China looks out to Europe. Therefore, Volvo will now be the one Novo Energy, we will see if alone or with partners, but the interesting thing about this operation is that, although Volvo is a Swedish company that is in the bag of his country, the matrix is ​​Geely, A Chinese holding. They are present in multitude of companies and sectors, with an important participation in Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin or Lotus, as well as co-owners of smart, polestar and with a participation of more than 80% in Volvo. It is curious that Northvolt was born to stand up to the Chinese battery industry and that the Join Adventure That I had with Volvo to produce batteries in Europe, now, is controlled by a Chinese company, in the absence of seeing the resolution of the authorities. And all this, shortly after Tariffs imposed by Europe To the Chinese electric car. In Xataka | Catl’s investment in Spain is not accidental: China is punishing those who supported tariffs on their electric cars

An Australian company has discovered “very encouraging” lithium and rubidium amounts in Salamanca. The potential is huge

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West of the province of Salamanca, near the border of Spain with Portugal, a finding that the Berkeley Australian company He has cataloged “very encouraging”. Significant amounts of lithium, essential for the manufacture of batteries, and rubidium, a scarce and strategic metal. The news. The Berkeley Energy mining group has found important concentrations of lithium and rubidium in a site in the province of Salamanca. These explorations are part of the Conchas project, which covers an area of ​​31 kilometers covered by sediments of the Cenozoic in the Ciudad Rodrigo region. The announcement, cataloged as “very encouraging” by the company, has fired its price 21% In the Australian bag. Why it is important. Lithium is the gold of the 21st century: an essential metal for the manufacture of batteries that has gone from feeding our electronic devices to boost electric vehicles and energy storage from renewable sources, so its demand is still increasing. But rubidium, in particular, is a metal of enormous strategic value. Because it is scarce and the time critical for sectors such as defense, medicine, telecommunications, Quantum computing and renewable energies. It is in atomic watches (GPS, missile guidance), photoelectric cells (night vision systems, Perosvkita solar panels), tomographies, ionic propulsion, data transmission … and its production is dominated by China. Now what. Berkeley has identified thick and shallow areas of lithium and rubidium, which facilitates its possible extraction, but not everything is said. The company will expand the polls and test the samples extracted to evaluate its metallurgical potential, a key step when determining the economic viability of the project. The results of these tests are expected to know this same quarter to define the following steps. It is not the only project. The Essential Metals Limited Australian company (Australia is one of the leading countries in lithium extraction) found high grade lithium to Villasrubias, a town in Salamanca that historically dedicated itself to tin extraction. “Perhaps it is the region, not only of Spain, but of Europe, which has the greatest number of critical raw materials identified, and that are listed by the European Union, due to their economic importance for the development of green energy and for the risk of dependence on third countries “, A project spokesman said. The environmental impact. Known for claiming one billion dollars in damages to the Spanish government after this prohibit the research and use of uraniumBerkeley has the support of the markets in the face of the discovery of lithium and rubidium, but will have to detail the environmental impact of its extraction if the project will continue. The extraction of lithium, in addition to altering the landscape, requires large amounts of water and can release heavy metals and acids in the soil. It would not be the first time that a project is filed for the risk for neighboring peoples, as has happened Until twice in Ávila Duela denunciation of environmental associations. Image | Bybyk (CC BY-CC 4.0), DNN87 (CC BY 3.0) In Xataka | In Salamanca there is a high -tech nuclear fuel bars factory that exports to all of Europe: we have visited it

SoftBank plans to invest up to $ 25,000 million in Sam Altman’s company

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SoftBank is discussing something important: they plan to invest up to 25,000 million dollars in Openai. That would make the Japanese company the greatest financial support of Chatgpt. The movement also occurs at a very significant moment. Stargate. The good relationship between both companies has recently been strengthened with the announcement of the Project Stargate, the initiative that states that several companies (including Openai and Softbank) invest 500,000 million dollars to create a large infrastructure of AI data centers in the AI ​​data centers Joined. And then there is the hardware project with Jony Ive. We knew that Sam Altman and Jony Ive had gathered to talk about jointly developing a hardware device with AI. Later it was learned that Softbank was too very interested in the project and had invested in it, although since then There have been barely details About those efforts. The relationship with Microsoft cools. But it is also that in recent months we have seen how the alliance between Openai and Microsoft also lost strength. The Colossal Microsoft investment In early 2023 seemed to unite them forever, but nothing is further from reality. A year later Microsoft began looking Your plan b for stop depending on itand soon it was clear that this was a relationship dated Cacudity. Microsoft is A clear rival of OpenAi, and the non-dilio between them is already teaching seams. SoftBank as a new girlfriend. All this seems to make Softbank come right in time to become the new OpenAi wealthy girlfriend. According to Financial Times The Japanese company plans to invest between 15,000 and 25,000 million dollars in Openai, but attention: that departs from the approximately $ 15,000 million that will contribute to Stargate. OpenAi Manirrota. Sam Altman’s company continues burning money as if there were no tomorrow. The October 2024 round with which he managed to lift 6,600 million dollars It would fall very short next to the one Openai. Many other AI startups are receiving important rounds, but the OpenAi company with SoftBank would be a new record. And then there is arm. There is another important element of this potential new alliance. ARM, Absolute Pilar of the development of mobile chips for years, also wants to become a company that offers powerful AI chips, and that could be an important element of the alliance and perhaps its implementation in Stargate. Image | Wikimedia |Wikimedia In Xataka | Stargate impossible accounts: the challenge of finding 500,000 million dollars for the largest IA project

The company closes a study in the United Kingdom and cuts personal in Germany and Sweden

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The movements in Ubisoft follow. The video game company based in Saint-Mandé has announced The dismissal of 185 employees. Part of the affected team was part of a study in the United Kingdom that will close its doors in the middle of an important restructuring. Ubisoft Leamington will completely cease its activities, while Ubisoft Düsseldorf (Germany), Ubisoft Stockholm (Sweden) and Ubisoft Reflections (United Kingdom) will receive a scissor to reduce costs, although they will continue to work with less personnel and resources. Times of change and survival The giant founded by the Guillemot brothers Buy Freestylegames from Activision in 2017. The operation included the transfer of the team that had developed products such as ‘Guitar Hero Live’. He was renamed as Ubisoft Leamington and got involved in several projects. The company used this study as support for the development of ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division‘,’Star Wars Outlaws‘,’Skull and bones‘ and ‘Far Cry 5‘. After almost a decade, Ubisoft has decided to dispense with this part of its structure to “guarantee long -term stability.” It is no secret that Ubisoft is not at its best. At the end of last year He announced that he would close ‘Xdefiant’, his ‘call of duty’ free. That decision, which will materialize this year, is accompanied by the closure of studies in San Francisco and Osaka. If we analyze the rest of the catalog, the panorama is not much more promising. Star Wars: Outlawswhich was outlined as one of the great bets of the year for the French company, ended up registering Christmas sales below expectations. With this scenario, the looks are set in ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘Like the great hope to Revert the course in 2025. The problem is that the launch of this title has been delayed twiceand should be available from March 20 of this year. The first month of the year closes for Ubisoft with new drastic measures, all the chips placed in its next large title and increasingly strong rumors on a possible sale. The future of the company is still uncertain, and it remains to be seen if it will straighten the course. Images | Ubisoft In Xataka | Xbox releases the artillery by 2025 with in -depth views to the very brutal new ‘doom’ and the announcement of ‘Ninja Gaiden 4’

OpenAI’s rival company is taking steps to address the problem

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The latest innovation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) It comes from China and is called DeepSeek. This chatbot, which competes directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has gained notable popularity in recent hours. Many users highlight its capabilities, and some even wonder if it is worth investing in similar tools. However, it is not all good news. DeepSeek, the company behind the tool of the same name, says it has suffered a cyberattack. According to the interface itself, these are “large-scale malicious attacks” that have impacted its services. The nature of the incident is still unclear, although there are indications that point to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The measure the company has taken to address the problem has been to temporarily limit registration of new users. This means that people who want to use the AI ​​chatbot for the first time will likely not be able to register, at least on the first try. DeepSeek itself recommends trying again if you are not successful. Users who were already registered on the platform should have no problems accessing it. However, in our tests we observed that the chatbot took longer than usual to respond. It should be noted that, in the last few hours, the service has remained inaccessible for some users, as indicated by the DeepSeek status page. In development. Images | DeepSeek In Xataka | NVIDIA has lost 400 billion in market value. The finishing touch has been given to the Chinese AI DeepSeek

Almost all big technology companies have failed in China. Not an unknown Indian company: InMobi

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Today, there are few global Internet companies that have managed to prosper in China. The Google search engine and other products from the American giant were no longer available in this Asian market more than a decade ago. amidst controversies over content censorship. Something similar happened with platforms like FacebookX (Twitter) and Amazon. However, InMobi has managed to make its way where many others have failed. It is an Indian company that operates at both ends of the advertising ecosystem. Advertising agencies and brands turn to it to help their ads reach mobile device users. Developers, for their part, monetize their applications and games by facilitating the integration of ads managed by InMobiwhich also collects data to refine its products. How to conquer the second largest mobile advertising market in the world Founded in 2007 in Bangalore, from the beginning it aimed to go beyond its country of origin because a large part of Indians still used basic mobile devices. The main markets of its business niche were in United States and China, scenario that hasn’t changed much since then. So he decided to bet first on the North American country and then for the Asian. After obtaining millions of dollars of financing backed by SoftBankInMobi decided to directly enter the world’s second largest advertising market in 2012. The Indian company not only aimed to offer advertising services for local clients, but also to become a bridge for US clients looking to have a presence in China. The company picked it up in a study published a year later of its arrival on the market. understand the Chinese cultural characteristics and the specific reasons driving user behavior was key to the business. InMobi grew steadily over the years until reaching the profitability of its global business in 2017. By the time it reached that milestone, its revenue in China had grown 15 times over the previous three years. InMobi quickly became the largest independent mobile advertising platform in the world. In 2017, this firm’s advertising network reached between 80% and 90% of Chinese smartphones. The service offering allowed clients to place advertising in more than 37,000 applications, reaching some of the most famous in the country. According to Jessie YangCEO of InMobi China, many foreign players failed in the Chinese market because They did not act quickly enough to adapt. On the contrary, his company outlined a plan according to the needs of the Asian market and did not hesitate to be completely flexible to adjust it along the way. One of the phrases that usually accompanies their press releases is “Think from the user’s point of view”. InMobi’s philosophy repeats: “Think from the user’s point of view.” InMobi’s success in China has given rise to numerous analyzes of the keys to its achievement. Some of them rescue very interesting elements. For example, the company was able to understand the Chinese market. To achieve this, he hired local staff, including Jessie Yang, who had worked at a reputable consulting firm. He also carefully studied the Chinese market, identifying trends and trying to stay one step ahead. At first he took advantage of his presence in other countries such as the United States to work alongside Chinese giants like Tencentthe creators of WeChatto get clients in international markets. Last but not least, he cultivated local partners. China has very strict rules for foreign companies that want to operate within its borders. But tell it to Blizzard and its tense relationship with NetEase. InMobi worked to have good synergy with local firms such as FuguMobile. Once its reputation was established, InMobi began working with large American companies such as Microsoft. Why other foreign companies have failed in China After learning about InMobi’s achievement in China, the question arises why other foreign companies They have not had the same fortune. Some of the reasons have been made evident in the previous paragraphs, but let’s delve a little deeper into this aspect taking into account the very interesting analysis which former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Ken Wilcox did a while back. Launching into the Chinese market without a local partner is practically a leap into the void. No matter how big the corporation is that dares such a feat, the most common thing is to choose to set up a joint venture. And it is precisely here where the first great challenge appears. Companies usually have different final objectives, which ends up generating conflicts and, in many cases, failure. Another great challenge is the cultural barrier, and especially the concept of “guanxi”. This system, based on building personal relationships through trust and mutual obligations, is key in Chinese business. For foreign companies that do not master this dynamic, moving in this field is complicated, especially when some practices may seem directly inappropriate from a Western prism. The Chinese regulatory environment is often another problem, and one of the main reasons why foreign companies need local partners. It depends on the type of business, but companies typically need a variety of licenses to operate, plus they must submit regular reports to regulators, which adds an additional operational burden. Finally, companies must coexist with the constant presence of Chinese Communist Partywhich has considerable control of the businesses carried out in the country. Wilcox explains that Western companies are not usually used to this type of dynamic. Images | InMobi | David Veksler | Alejandro Luengo | HaziiDozen In Xataka | China investigates whether the US CHIPS law harms its companies: the mature semiconductor market is at stake

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