FCC Chair Faces Fight Over Dropping Net Neutrality Rules

A federal regulator’s plan to roll back Obama-era net-neutrality rules is sparking another battle that is expected to rival or exceed the epic political clashes over internet regulation in recent years. The dispute intensified when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai held a closed-door meeting with telecommunications groups to sketch out his ideas for rolling back the 2015 net-neutrality rules, one of the Obama administration’s signature regulatory changes.

Facebook Close to Deal on Using WhatsApp Data in Europe

Facebook's European regulator said it hoped to reach a deal in the coming months with the U.S. company to allow it to use data gleaned from the WhatsApp messaging service it acquired in 2014. The European Union's 28 data protection authorities last year requested that WhatsApp stop sharing users' data with Facebook due to questions over the validity of users' consent.

Yahoo's European Regulator to Issue Report on Data Breach

Yahoo's European regulator said it is preparing to give the U.S. Internet firm the results of an investigation into the 2014 theft of data from 500 million users, including possible remedial action to avoid a repeat of the breach. Yahoo said in September last year that hackers had stolen the data in 2014, prompting criticism from U.S. politicians into the delay in notifying customers.

German Official Wants Right to Attack Foreign Hackers

Germany is trying to beef up its cyber defense, after the interior minister called for rules that allow nations to attack foreign hackers targeting critical infrastructure. Europe’s biggest economy is currently evaluating whether it needs to draft new legislation to ensure its security forces are legally cleared to defend the country against cyber attacks that target, for example, its electricity infrastructure, according to Thomas de Maiziere.

U.S. Withdraws Demand for Twitter to Disclose Critic

Customs and Border Protection withdrew its demand that Twitter unmask the anonymous account, a day after the social media company sued the government to block the summons. The person or people behind the account, @ALT_USCIS, had claimed to be a current employee of Citizenship and Immigration Services and had regularly posted messages at odds with White House policy.

Tech Licensing Firm Files Patent Suit Against Oculus

Facebook Inc.'s virtual reality unit Oculus VR is facing a lawsuit alleging it incorporated without authorization a smaller competitor's patented technology into its Rift headset. Techno View IP Inc., a Newport Beach, California-based technology licensing firm, sued Facebook and Oculus for infringing a 3D imaging patent owned by the VR headset maker ImmersiON-VRelia.

Australian Regulator Sues Apple Over Faulty iPhone Updates

An Australian regulator is suing Apple Inc. over software which disabled iPhones and iPads that had been serviced outside Apple stores after users downloaded updates. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges Apple violated Australia’s consumer law by shutting down or “bricking” the devices, and then telling customers the company wouldn’t fix the problem at no cost because their devices had been previously serviced by third-party providers.

Twitter Sues Trump Administration Over Criticism Account

Twitter is suing the Trump administration after it tried to compel the social media site to reveal the identity of an account that had been tweeting criticism of the president. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, Twitter revealed that the Department of Homeland Security in March had demanded that the company reveal who is behind @ALT_USCIS, an anonymous account that has been raising alarms about U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Trump’s immigration policies.

N.Y. Court Rules Against Facebook on Search Warrants

New York State’s highest court dealt a blow to Facebook and other social media companies seeking to expand privacy protections, ruling that Facebook had no right to ask an appellate court to quash search warrants ordering the company to hand over information from hundreds of accounts in a disability fraud case. The state Court of Appeals, in a 5-to-1 decision, with one judge recusing himself, upheld lower court rulings that New York law does not allow a social media company to appeal a judge’s decision to issue search warrants in a criminal case, even if the company believes those warrants violate the constitutional rights of its users.

Facebook Adds Tools for Easier Reporting of 'Revenge Porn'

Facebook Inc. is adding tools to make it easier for users to report so-called "revenge porn" and to automatically prevent the images from being shared again once they have been banned, the company said. "Revenge porn" refers to the sharing of sexually explicit images on the internet, without the consent of the people depicted in the pictures, in order to extort or humiliate them.

Amazon, FTC Agree to End Legal Appeals Over In-App Purchases

Amazon.com Inc. can begin refunding as much as $70 million to consumers for in-app purchases made by children, following the end of a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC said it and the Seattle-based retailer agreed to end appeals related to a federal court decision last year that found Amazon was liable for in-app purchases children made over the course of about five years without their parents’ authorization due to the lack of sufficient safeguards.

Google Sees No Impact from Change in H-1B Visa Program

Google anticipates that new guidance on H-1B visas will not affect its own employees, according to an email obtained by Recode. “Wanted to quickly weigh in on behalf of the immigration team to let you all know that we’re following this and for now, don’t anticipate an impact to Googlers,” says the email to Google staff from an employee in human resources.

Visitors to U.S. May Have to Disclose Passwords

Foreigners who want to visit the U.S., even for a short trip, could be forced to disclose contacts on their mobile phones, social-media passwords and financial records, and to answer probing questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials conducting a review of vetting procedures. The administration also wants to subject more visa applicants to intense security reviews and have embassies spend more time interviewing each applicant.

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.