Online messaging services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail will face tougher rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive which could hurt companies reliant on advertising. The web companies would have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations and get their consent before tracking them online to serve them personalized ads.
After months of explaining and defending its policies, publicly and in meetings with regulators, Microsoft announced that it's making a series of privacy-related moves. Terry Myerson, who runs the Windows and Devices Group, made the announcement in a blog post, referring to "a new web-based privacy dashboard" and "a new privacy set up experience."
Data -- gathered in those immense pools of information that are at the heart of everything from artificial intelligence to online shopping recommendations -- is increasingly a focus of technology competition. And academics and some policy makers, especially in Europe, are considering whether big internet companies like Google and Facebook might use their data resources as a barrier to new entrants and innovation.
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court's decision that an online advertising site accused by three young women of facilitating child sex trafficking was protected by a federal law that has shielded website operators from liability for content posted by others. The refusal by the justices to take up the women's appeal in the case involving the advertising website Backpage.com marked a victory for the tech industry, which could have faced far-reaching consequences had the Supreme Court decided to limit the scope of the Communications Decency Act, passed by Congress in 1996 to protect free speech on the internet.
A Florida man pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to operate an illegal bitcoin exchange, which prosecutors said was owned by an Israeli who oversaw a massive scheme to hack companies, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Anthony Murgio, 33, entered his plea in federal court in Manhattan to three counts, including conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a month before he was to face trial.
Martin Shkreli’s Twitter account was suspended, following a period of targeted harassment against freelance reporter Lauren Duca. Twitter confirmed that the temporary suspension was related to the harassment of Duca, but would not give any further details and a spokesperson declined to be quoted directly.
United States intelligence officials have determined that last year’s cyberattacks on the World Anti-Doping Agency originated with the Russian government, perpetrated in apparent retaliation for what President Vladimir V. Putin deemed to be an American-led effort to defame Russia for widespread doping. That conclusion was published in a declassified intelligence report ordered by President Obama.
Smartphone users in Russia can no longer download the LinkedIn app on iPhone or Android devices, following a similar move in China to block The New York Times app on iPhones. The demand by Russian authorities to remove LinkedIn in Apple and Google app stores comes weeks after a court blocked the professional networking service for flouting local laws that require internet firms to store data on Russian citizens within the nation’s borders.
A report that Russian computer attackers had penetrated a Vermont electrical utility company may have turned out to be baseless, but the nation's grid is in "imminent danger" of cyberattacks, the Energy Department warned. "Widespread disruption of electric service because of a transmission failure initiated by a cyberattack at various points of entry could undermine U.S. lifeline networks, critical defense infrastructure and much of the economy; it could also endanger the health and safety of millions of citizens," the DOE said in a massive 494-page report.
Canada's Competition Bureau said it had not found sufficient evidence that Apple Inc. had engaged in anti-competitive conduct, closing a two-year investigation into the iPhone maker. The watchdog launched a probe into Apple's business practices in December 2014 to investigate allegations the company's Canadian unit had used anti-competitive clauses to force domestic operators to sell rival devices at higher prices than they otherwise would have and restricting how they could market and sell iPhones.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against D-Link Corp., arguing that the company failed to take steps to ensure that the routers and internet-linked security cameras that it manufactures could not be hacked. The FTC alleged that D-Link advertised their devices as secure, but then failed to address security flaws such as security gaps that allow hackers to take over consumers' devices remotely.
The country’s top intelligence official said that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign consisted of hacking, as well as the spreading of traditional propaganda and “fake news.” “Whatever crack, fissure, they could find in our tapestry... they would exploit it,” said Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on foreign cyberthreats, and especially Russian hacking and interference in the campaign.
Techdirt founder Mike Masnick will be going toe-to-toe in court with Charles Harder, the Hollywood attorney who famously represented Hulk Hogan in the sex tape lawsuit that brought down Gawker. Harder's client Shiva Ayyadurai filed a $15 million libel lawsuit in Massachusetts against Masnick, Leigh Beadon and Techdirt parent company Floor64 Inc. over articles that doubted Ayyadurai's claim to have invented e-mail.
The Labor Department is going to court to force Google to turn over compensation data during an anti-discrimination audit. The administrative lawsuit claims Google has withheld compensation data and other information requested by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs as part of a routine audit of the Internet giant's equal opportunity program.
At a day-long workshop on drones and privacy in October, researchers from the Federal Trade Commission showed they were able to hack into three different off-the-shelf drones, all costing less than $200. The three drones tested were the AR Drone Elite Quadcopter from Parrot, the Hawkeye II 2nd FPV Motion Sensing Quadcopter from DBPower and the oneCase CX-10w made by Cheerson, according to documents obtained by Recode from a Freedom of Information Act Request.
Apple, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month. The move limits access to one of the few remaining channels for readers in mainland China to read The Times without resorting to special software.
Republicans barreled ahead with a plan to fine members who use their phones to broadcast future floor protests, approving rules for the new Congress that codify the penalties despite last-minute objections from Democrats. Before the vote Democrats including Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a leader of the daylong gun-control sit-in over the summer, blasted the proposal as “unprecedented and unconstitutional."
China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has sued two vendors it says sold fake Swarovski watches on its Taobao e-commerce platform, its first legal action against counterfeiters amid persistent allegations that fake goods are widely available on its sites. The news of the lawsuit comes less than two weeks after the United States returned Taobao to its blacklist of "notorious marketplaces" known for the sale of counterfeit and intellectual property rights violating goods after four years off the list.
The Obama administration is completing a study that could lead to restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. semiconductor sector. The report, being prepared by President Barack Obama’s chief science adviser and due to be published before he leaves office this month, will include recommendations aimed at bolstering protection of an industry deemed critical to national security, according to people familiar with the study.
Though India had no reputation as a large-scale exporter of fraud in the past, it is now seen as a major center for fraud, said Suhel Daud, an FBI agent who serves as assistant legal attaché at the embassy in New Delhi. Several trends have converged to make this happen, he said: a demographic bulge of computer-savvy, young, English-speaking job seekers; a vast call-center culture; super-efficient technology; and what can only be described as ingenuity.
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