China will ban from March 1 Internet accounts that impersonate people or organizations, and enforce the requirement that people use real names when registering accounts online, its Internet watchdog said. China has repeatedly made attempts to require internet users to register for online accounts using their real names, although with mixed success.
A panel of experts appointed by Google to advise it on a European court ruling ordering it to remove some personal information from search results is leaning toward limiting the application to European websites only. The territorial reach of the "right to be forgotten" decision from the European Court of Justice has put the search engine giant at odds with the European Union's data protection watchdogs, who have told it to remove links across all relevant versions of its website, including Google.com.
An audit report on Uber's data privacy practices didn’t appear to bring any new clarity to one question that’s been a focus for its critics: Who in the company has access to its most sensitive data -- the locations of passenger pickups and drop-offs? Uber has repeatedly said that it restricts access to that data to employees with a “legitimate business purpose.
A new report from security firm Avas reveals the discovery of a new form of malware on the Google Play store, which begins to display advertisements disguised as warning messages to end users when they unlock their Android smartphone. What’s interesting about this malware – or adware, as it’s better known – is that some of the applications where it was discovered already have a large number of installs.
Federal officials are moving forward to preempt laws in two states that limit the ability of local officials to build broadband networks, a long-expected move that will likely spark a fight with state lawmakers. The FCC is expected to approve two petitions later this month from officials in Wilson, N.C., and Chattanooga, Tenn., who have been barred from expanding their local broadband networks.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is widely expected to propose regulating Internet service like a public utility, a move certain to unleash another round of intense debate and lobbying about how to ensure so-called net neutrality, or an open Internet. Tom Wheeler, the FCC chairman, will advocate a light-touch approach to Title II, is expected to shun the more intrusive aspects of utility-style regulation, like meddling in pricing decisions.
A controversial new state law is making it easier for estate executors to access digital data -- such as email, photos and social-media postings -- after the account holder dies. Many Internet companies strictly limit access to their customers’ accounts to the account holder, in accordance, they say, with federal privacy law.
President Barack Obama's budget proposal for the 2016 fiscal year seeks $14 billion for cybersecurity efforts across the U.S. government to better protect federal and private networks from hacking threats. Federal cybersecurity funding has steadily increased in recent years, reflecting the intensity of threats U.S. companies and government agencies are facing from cyber intruders, both domestic and foreign.
Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have reached an accord that allows the U.S. companies to avoid fines for allegedly misleading people in the European Union to make purchases in mobile phone apps that are initially free to download. The three companies, which run stores to download apps, and Gameloft , a French game developer, committed to make changes including removing the words “free” from the apps that could require payments once a person has started using them, Italy’s Antitrust and Competition Authority said.
Ride service Uber, which is trying to enhance its image after several controversies, released the findings of a report on its handling of passenger data and said it would act on all the report's recommendations for improvements. Lawyers at Hogan Lovells, who wrote the report commissioned and paid for by Uber, found that the smartphone app-enabled service had appropriate guidelines and procedures in place for internal access control, data security and data retention.
Search engine Google has agreed to better inform users about how it handles their personal information after an investigation by Britain's data protection regulator found its privacy policy was too vague. The Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement that it required Google to sign a "formal undertaking" that it would make the changes by June 30 and take further steps in the next two years.
Only two days after a Chinese government regulator chastised the Alibaba Group, the e-commerce giant, for failing to curb the sale of fake goods on its sites, the two appear to have made up in a hurry. The regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said that its leader, Zhang Mao, had met with Alibaba’s executive chairman, Jack Ma, to discuss cooperating to fight counterfeiting and protect consumers.
After a protracted extradition proceeding, a Dutch court ruled that Vladimir Drinkman will be sent to the United States to stand trial. Drinkman, 34, is accused of taking part in a string of marquee hacks: the penetration of the electronic stock exchange Nasdaq, the theft of more than 130 million credit card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems, and cyber-heists that victimized 7-Eleven, the Hannaford Brothers supermarket chain, Visa, Dow Jones and Jet Blue, among others.
Pirate Bay is up and running again after having been down for seven weeks. The file-sharing site is currently functional for the first time since a Dec. 9 raid by Swedish authorities.
The Federal Trade Commission ordered the operator of a now-defunct “revenge porn” site to destroy all the nude images he collected. Under the terms of a settlement agreement, the commission also banned the operator of the site from publicly sharing similar images or videos in the future.
China has long had some of the world’s most onerous Internet restrictions. But until now, the authorities had effectively tolerated the proliferation of virtual private networks, or V.P.N.s, as a lifeline for millions of people, from archaeologists to foreign investors, who rely heavily on less-fettered access to the Internet. Now, after a number of V.P.N. companies, including StrongVPN and Golden Frog, complained that the Chinese government had disrupted their services with unprecedented sophistication, a senior official for the first time acknowledged its hand in the attacks and implicitly promised more of the same.
The White House is preparing to send a sweeping online privacy proposal to Congress that would restrict how companies like Google and Facebook handle consumer data while greatly expanding the power of the Federal Trade Commission to police abuses — ideas that are likely to incite strong opposition in Congress. The forthcoming measure — slated for release next month — would require large Internet companies, online advertisers, mobile app makers and others to ask permission from consumers before collecting and sharing their most sensitive personal information, according to three sources briefed by administration officials.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to change the definition of broadband Internet to connection speeds of 25 megabits per second or higher, up from the previous standard of 4 megabits. FCC commissioners voted on the definition as part of the agency’s 2015 Broadband Progress Report. If speeds do not reach the new threshold, a connection cannot be listed as “broadband.”
Facebook Inc. is being quizzed by Hamburg’s privacy watchdog amid concerns the social network giant’s revamped user-data policies may violate German law. Facebook was given until the end of the next month to respond to questions on the data handling and may face a probe if it fails to allay concerns, the regulator, Johannes Caspar, said in Berlin.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is embroiled in a rare, high-stakes public dispute with a powerful Chinese government agency that is accusing the e-commerce giant of allegedly failing to crack down on the sale of fake goods, bribery and other illegal activity on its sites. The government’s accusations are in a white paper just made public by China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce but based on conversations between the agency and Alibaba company officials in July.
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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.