Google Wins Japanese Ruling on Scrubbing Search References

Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Alphabet Inc.’s Google in a case brought by a man found guilty years ago of child-pornography charges who wanted articles about his arrest removed from Google searches. The ruling didn’t directly address the “right to be forgotten,” which was established in the European Union by the EU’s top court in a 2014 ruling, but it did offer some of the Japanese high court’s first views on what standards should apply when people want Google and other search engines to scrub references to past wrongdoing.

Cable Customers 'Short-Changed' on Internet Speed, Lawsuit Says

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Charter and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary, claiming that the Internet provider "allegedly conduct[ed] a deliberate scheme to defraud and mislead New Yorkers by promising Internet service that they knew they could not deliver." State officials said they conducted a 16-month investigation that reviewed internal corporate communications "and hundreds of thousands of subscriber speed tests," concluding that Spectrum-TWC customers were "dramatically short-changed on both speed and reliability," the attorney general's announcement said.

Amazon Working with Washington State Against Trump Travel Ban

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said the Seattle-based company is prepared to support a lawsuit being brought by Washington state's attorney general against President Trump and the administration over Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees. The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, reported that Bezos wrote in an internal email to Amazon employees Monday that company lawyers have prepared a "declaration of support" for the suit.

Spanish Police Arrest Three Linked to Data Breach of Officers

Spanish police have arrested three people over a data breach linked to a series of dramatic intrusions at European spy software companies — feeding speculation that the net has closed on an online Robin Hood figure known as Phineas Fisher. A spokesman with Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's regional police, said two men and a woman were arrested in Salamanca and Barcelona on suspicion of breaking into the website of the Mossos labor union in May, hijacking its Twitter feed and leaking the personal data of more than 5,500 officers.

Court to Hear Facebook Case on Challenging Search Warrants

New York’s highest court will weigh whether Facebook Inc. can legally challenge search warrants issued for the accounts of its users, a case that has been closely watched for its ramifications on law enforcement and digital privacy in the state. The Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 7 in a lawsuit brought by Facebook against the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Draft Executive Order Could Hit High-Tech Visa Program

President Donald Trump's administration has drafted an executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. If implemented, the reforms could shift the way American companies like Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. recruit talent and force wholesale changes at Indian companies such as Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd.

More Criminals Publicize Their Activity Online

Terrorists, political protesters and narcissistic criminals have long carried out crimes designed to further their agenda or demonstrate their own perceived cleverness, power or bravado. What’s new is the access people have to tools, via the smartphone, that allow for the creation, publication and distribution of content at the touch of a button -- through photos, tweets, status updates, videos and now live streaming.

Tech Company Leaders Criticize Trump's Order on Immigration

Leaders from across the technology industry criticized President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, ending weeks of cautious engagement with the new president, whom many in Silicon Valley opposed. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Uber Technologies Inc. and other companies expressed concern about the immigration order’s effect on their employees, with some executives saying the ban violated their personal and company principles.

Twitter Discloses Receipt of FBI National Security Letters

Twitter disclosed that the FBI had issued the tech company two national security letters accompanied by gag orders in the past two years. In a blog post on Twitter’s website, Elizabeth Banker, an associate general counsel for the company, published both national security requests, redacted to hide the identities of the users being probed as well as law enforcement officials.

High-Tech Companies 'Scared' Over Trump's Immigration Changes

American technology companies for years have relied on a steady stream of skilled engineers from overseas to help them create their products. Now many of those companies and their workers are girding for expected changes to immigration policy under President Trump that the companies say could hurt their ability to tap the technical talent they need to stay competitive.

FBI Posts Redacted Report on Gamergate Investigations

The FBI has posted a heavily redacted report of its threat investigations during the Gamergate controversy in 2014 and 2015. The 173-page document (not counting 61 deleted pages) primarily seems to cover harassment of against critic Anita Sarkeesian and game developer Brianna Wu, including a shooting threat that caused Sarkeesian to cancel a planned talk at Utah State University.

Russia Reports 2016 Cyber Attacks on Commercial Banks

Russia's major commercial banks came under cyber attacks in November last year, the country's Federal Security Service said, Interfax news agency reported. Lenders such as Sberbank, Rosbank, Alfa Bank, Bank of Moscow, as well as the Moscow Exchange and other institutions were the targets of "a massive attack" from hackers between Nov. 8 and Nov. 14, deputy head of the Security Service Dmitry Shalkov said.

Doctors Want FDA to Regulate Internet Devices for Babies

Experts are worried about an emerging market of smart devices that pledge to monitor babies’ vital signs during sleep. In an editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, two doctors and a medical researcher warn that relying on these smart baby monitors could actually put infants at risk. The authors call on the Food and Drug Administration to step up its regulation of these devices.

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.