The Federal Communications Commission voted to approve an annual report on broadband deployment that has become a magnet for controversy in recent years. In the report, the commission found that around 34 million Americans still lack access to wired high-speed internet service. It also found that rural residents still have a harder time accessing broadband than their urban counterparts.
The Federal Trade Commission has upgraded a web site designed to guide victims of identity theft in their efforts to mitigate the damage, the agency said. An estimated 17.6 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2014, according to Justice Department figures.
A group of top U.S. officials and business leaders visited Cuba to urge the government there to more rapidly build out its Internet infrastructure and make it more widely available. U.S. officials said they recommended that the country “leapfrog” current buildout of aging technology, such as DSL and 3G mobile service, for faster technology such as fiber and high-speed mobile.
A new app that allows users to send anonymous text messages is causing alarm among parents, politicians and some teenagers, who say it is being used as a weapon for cyber-bullying. Blindspot, launched by Israeli company Shellanoo, has attracted 700,000 users since it was launched a month ago, mostly in Israel where it is being heavily marketed but also in the United States and Britain.
A U.S. court has awarded an insurance company $1.2 million in damages in a cybersquatting dispute. In a judgment handed down at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Florida-based Insurance Depot Marketing was fined for failing to respond to Neutron Insurance’s complaint.
Google's secretive drone delivery project could include a component designed to store packages securely. A patent filed in the United States by the company, a unit of Alphabet Inc, describes a "delivery receptacle" designed to take packages from an "aerial delivery device" for deposit to a secure location.
With firewalls no longer seen as enough of a defense against security breaches, companies are looking at new tools to foil hackers trying to enter a computer network. U.S. and Israeli startups are leading the way, with new approaches such as "honeytraps" that lure a hacker to fake data or "polymorphic" technology that constantly changes the structure of applications running on a computer.
The FBI has said it will focus on working with online retailers and payment service providers to help clamp down on the sale of counterfeits. In a statement, the agency said it will work with digital marketplaces to tackle criminal groups that sell fake goods.
President Obama is the first true gadget geek to occupy the Oval Office, and yet his eagerness to take part in the personal technology revolution is hampered by the secrecy and security challenges that are daily requirements of his job. What counts as must-have features for many people — high-definition cameras, powerful microphones, cloud-connected wireless radios and precise GPS location transmitters — are potential threats when the leader of the free world wants to carry them around.
The European Union will monitor rather than regulate "hyped" virtual currencies for now, because too little is known to justify new rules beyond reining in specific risks like money-laundering, the body's executive said. The world's 600 virtual currencies are tiny, with bitcoin alone accounting for 90 percent of the $7 billion sector, compared with daily turnover of about $5 trillion on global foreign exchange markets.
Russia is to block its largest movie-sharing websites -- including RuTracker.org, with 13 million users -- smoothing the path for legal alternatives such as Netflix Inc. Moscow City Court’s ruling on the blocking of RuTracker has taken force, a spokesman for the court said by phone.
A German court has declared unlawful a feature that encourages Amazon customers to share links to products of the online shop with their contacts, confirming the ruling of a lower court. The Amazon "share" feature invites customers to share a product via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or Pintrest.
For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it described as one of the Internet’s largest child pornography websites, allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a government site in the Washington suburbs. The operation -- whose details remain largely secret -- was at least the third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users who officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and anonymous computer network.
On Jan. 1 a law took effect that requires telecommunications and Internet companies operating in China to provide law enforcement with technical assistance, including decryption of sensitive user data, in any probe meant “to avert and investigate terrorist activities.” The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China says the law’s vague wording on when and how to help law enforcement decrypt data “leaves concern about how companies will be expected to carry this out.”
Italian police said they had shut down a website selling fake products carrying the high-fashion Prada label. No figures on total sales were available, but police called the website "very sophisticated". It ran worldwide, using 90 service providers and standard electronic payment systems, and carried pictures of actual Prada products sold at prices in line with Prada's factory outlets, lending it credibility.
Despite the state's deep tech roots, California's legislature is considering banning devices that come with unbreakable encryption. California assembly member Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) introduced the legislation, bill 1681, that would require any smartphone manufactured "on or after January 1, 2017, and sold in California after that date" to be "capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider."
Google Inc.’s Android operating system has generated revenue of $31 billion and $22 billion in profit, a lawyer for Oracle Corp. said in court while disclosing figures Google says shouldn’t have been made public. An analysis of the search engine giant’s tightly held financial information was disclosed Jan. 14 by an Oracle attorney in the database maker’s lawsuit accusing Google of using its Java software without paying for it to develop Android.
The American Civil Liberties Union organized local lawmakers in 16 states to introduce a range of privacy legislation -- related to student and employee rights as well as protection from government surveillance. The lobbying group said it is putting a stronger focus on state-based laws because Congress has been “largely asleep at the switch.”
Google released its annual report on the state of its advertising business, as it relates to the company’s ability to block bad ads -- those that carry malware, are deceptive or just disruptive to the user experience, such as ads that cover up the content you’re trying to see. Google said it blocked over 780 million ads for policy violations last year, which is an increase from the 524 million-plus it blocked the year prior.
Tensions are rising between governments and big U.S. technology companies over widening surveillance demands, part of a broader debate over how to reconcile online privacy with the fight against terrorism. The battle will surface at the World Economic Forum, after a year in which terrorist groups including Islamic State killed hundreds in attacks around the world -- in some cases, officials say, using popular online tools to recruit followers and communicate.
About : Legal Services | Doug Isenberg | Cases & Clients | Firm News
Resources : YouTube Channel | Daily News | Blog | Masterclass | Domain Dispute Digest
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.