EBay Inc. will begin authenticating luxury handbags, footwear and other commonly counterfeited fashion items this year, looking to gain an edge as shoppers become more wary of the abundance of fake goods posted to online marketplaces. The company will use a network of brand experts to verify that a Chanel handbag listed on the marketplace, for instance, is real.
iPhone app purchasers may sue Apple Inc. over allegations that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps by not allowing users to purchase them outside the App Store, leading to higher prices, a U.S. appeals court ruled. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling revives a long-simmering legal challenge originally filed in 2012 taking aim at Apple’s practice of only allowing iPhones to run apps purchased from its own App Store.
Donald Trump has found a slot for longtime supporter Rudy Giuliani, saying that the former New York City mayor will lead a task force on cybersecurity and serve as liaison to private industry on those issues. Giuliani "will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cyber security problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector," the Trump transition said in a statement.
A Canadian enforcement agency announced that Amazon Canada will pay a $1 million fine for what could be construed as misleading pricing practices. The investigation centered on the practice of Amazon displaying its prices compared to higher “list prices” — suggested manufacturer prices (MSRPs) designed as marketing gimmicks to make people think they are getting a deal, even though it’s often the case that no shopper ever pays that price.
The United States has not satisfied the European Union's concerns about Yahoo's scanning of all customers' incoming emails for U.S. intelligence purposes, the bloc's justice chief told Reuters in an interview. The European Commission, the EU executive, asked the United States in November for clarifications on the secret court order served to Yahoo as part of its monitoring of a new transatlantic pact facilitating the exchange of personal data by businesses.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressed concern about “zero-rating” services from AT&T and Verizon that “may harm consumers and competition.” In a report examining four different zero-rated services, the FCC’s Wireless Bureau found that AT&T’s Sponsored Data program and Verizon’s FreeBee Data 360 program may stifle competition by “potentially unreasonable discrimination in favor of their own affiliates.”
Amazon.com removed doormats resembling the Indian tri-color flag from its Canadian website on Wednesday, after an Indian government threat to rescind visas of the U.S. company's employees if they did not stop selling the product. Amazon's portal in Canada sells doormats fashioned around other national flags, but under Indian law any desecration of its flag is punishable with fines and imprisonment.
The FBI has released 100 pages of heavily censored documents related to its agreement with an unidentified vendor to hack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, but it did not identify whom it paid to perform the work or how much it cost. The records were provided in response to a federal lawsuit filed against the FBI by The Associated Press, Vice Media and Gannett, the parent company of USA Today.
Nintendo's hit smartphone app, Pokemon Go, and other augmented reality games are unlikely to be rolled out in China any time soon, after the state censor said it would not license them until potential security risks had been evaluated. Although not yet available in China, the world's biggest smartphone and online gaming market, the location-based game developed by U.S-based Niantic took the world by storm when it was released last year.
The director of the FBI, James B. Comey, told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that Russian hackers had penetrated the Republican National Committee’s computer records, but he called it a “limited penetration of old R.N.C.” computer systems that were “no longer in use.” Mr. Comey’s statement was significant because the Republican National Committee has said it did not lose data to the Russians because of its strong cybersecurity.
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.
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