Uber Settles Lawsuit with Blind Group Over Service Animals

Uber and advocates for the blind have reached a lawsuit settlement in which the ride-hailing company agrees to require that existing and new drivers confirm they understand their legal obligations to transport riders with guide dogs or other service animals, an advocacy group announced. The National Federation of the Blind said that Uber will also remove a driver from the platform after a single complaint if it determines the driver knowingly denied a person with a disability a ride because the person was traveling with a service animal.

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FBI Gets Search Warrant Forcing Woman to Provide iPhone Fingerprint

As the world watched the FBI spar with Apple this winter in an attempt to hack into a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, federal officials were quietly waging a different encryption battle in a Los Angeles courtroom. There, authorities obtained a search warrant compelling the girlfriend of an alleged Armenian gang member to press her finger against an iPhone that had been seized from a Glendale home.

FTC Investgating Venmo for Possible Unfair Practices

Venmo, the hugely popular peer-to-peer payments service owned by PayPal, is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Its parent company acknowledged the situation in an SEC filing. "On March 28th, 2016, we received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) from the Federal Trade Commission as part of its investigation to determine whether we, through our Venmo service, have been or are engaged in deceptive or unfair practices in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act," the filing reads.

U.S. Steel Says Chinese Gov't Hackers Stole Plans

U.S. Steel Corp. is alleging that Chinese government hackers stole proprietary methods for making lightweight steel on behalf of Chinese steel producers seeking to supply a bigger share of the U.S. auto-making market. Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, in a complaint filed with the International Trade Commission, said a computer belonging to a Pittsburgh researcher was hacked in 2011, and that plans for developing new steel technology were stolen.

Supreme Court Approves Rule Change for Computer Search Warrants

The Supreme Court approved a rule change that would let U.S. judges issue search warrants for access to computers located in any jurisdiction despite opposition from civil liberties groups who say it will greatly expand the FBI's hacking authority. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts transmitted the rules to Congress, which will have until Dec. 1 to reject or modify the changes to the federal rules of criminal procedure.

FTC Extends Probe Into Google's Android Abuses

Federal Trade Commission staffers have met with companies in recent months to examine industry concerns that Alphabet Inc.’s Google abuses the dominance of its Android smartphone software, extending a probe that began last year, according to people familiar with the matter. The FTC is examining issues similar to European regulators, who last week charged Google with improperly using Android’s status as the world’s most popular smartphone operating system to force device makers and wireless carriers to favor Google’s search engine and other services.

FBI Informs Apple of iPhone, Mac Vulnerability

The FBI informed Apple of a vulnerability in its iPhone and Mac software on April 14, the first time it had told the company about a flaw in Apple products under a controversial White House process for sharing such information, the company told Reuters. The FBI told the company that the disclosure resulted from the so-called Vulnerability Equities Process for deciding what to do with information about security holes, Apple said.

Judge Holds Amazon Liable for Kids' Unauthorized In-App Purchases

A federal court found Amazon liable for charging parents for unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids, siding with the Federal Trade Commission in a case that stretched back to 2014. The key question in the legal battle was whether Amazon's app store made it too easy for children to buy virtual goods with real money inside games labeled as "free" without parental permission.

FBI Won't Share iPhone Hacking Info with Apple

The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to tell the White House it knows so little about the hacking tool that was used to open a terrorist’s iPhone that it doesn’t make sense to launch an internal government review about whether to share the hacking method with Apple Inc. The decision, and the technical and bureaucratic justification behind it, would likely keep Apple in the dark about whatever security gap exists on certain models of the company’s phones, according to people familiar with the discussions.

SWIFT Warns Banks About Multiple 'Cyber Incidents'

SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers that it was aware of "a number of recent cyber incidents" where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system. The disclosure came as law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere investigated the February cyber theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

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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.