Australian Commission Issues Regulations to Monitor Tech Giants

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has indicated the need for potential new regulations to stop major tech companies from abusing their power to the detriment of Australia’s media and digital advertising industries. In a preliminary report, it put forth 11 recommendations to improve oversight of the tech giants and prevent them from engaging in potentially discriminatory conduct.

Amazon Fires Workers for Accessing Internal Data to Help Merchants

Amazon.com Inc. is fighting a barrage of seller scams on its website, including firing several employees suspected of having helped supply independent merchants with inside information, according to people familiar with the company’s effort. Amazon was investigating suspected data leaks and bribes of its employees, The Wall Street Journal reported in September. Since then, the company has dismissed several workers in the U.S. and India for allegedly inappropriately accessing internal data that was being misused by disreputable merchants, these people said.

Senator Says U.S. Needs Better Cybersecurity to Protect Infrastructure

The U.S. needs improved cybersecurity policies if it's going to catch up with the practices in the rest of the world, Sen. Mark Warner said, adding that the government has failed to recognize the seriousness of the situation. The Virginia Democrat, who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, said US cybersecurity fails to provide adequate protection of critical infrastructure or guard against the dissemination of disinformation online.

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Italy Fines Facebook $11.4 Million for Illegal Use of Customers' Data

Italy's Competition Authority slapped Facebook with two fines that total 10 million euros ($11.4M) for using people's data for commercial purposes in ways that break the country's laws. Italy issued the first fine after deciding that the social network persuaded people to register for accounts on the platform without informing them during the signup process that their data would be collected and used for commercial purposes.

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EU Tech Commissioner Warns of Security Risks from Chinese Companies

The European Union should be worried about Huawei and other Chinese technology companies because of the risk they pose to the bloc’s industry and security, the EU’s technology chief said, echoing concerns raised elsewhere in the world. Huawei expressed disappointment at EU tech commissioner Andrus Ansip’s comments, saying it had never been asked to install technology that could be used for spying and never would.

U.S. Expected to Unseal Charges Against Chinese Government Hackers

Federal prosecutors are expected to unseal criminal charges as soon as next week against hackers linked to the Chinese government who have allegedly engaged in a sophisticated multiyear scheme to break into U.S. technology service providers in order to compromise the networks of their clients, according to people familiar with the matter. U.S. officials have described the hacking campaign as one of the most audacious and damaging orchestrated by China to date, intended to steal intellectual property and support Beijing’s espionage goals.

EU Governments Drafting Rules on Electronic Evidence from Tech Firms

EU governments agreed to toughen up draft rules allowing law enforcement authorities to get electronic evidence directly from tech companies such as Facebook and Google stored in the cloud in another European country. The move underlines the growing trend in Europe to rein in tech giants whether on the regulatory front or the antitrust front.

Huawei CFO Faces Fraud Charges for Violating U.S. Sanctions on Iran

At a bail hearing in Vancouver for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and a daughter of the company’s founder, Canadian prosecutors said she was accused of fraud. The heart of the charges related to how Ms. Meng may have participated in a scheme to trick financial institutions into making transactions that violated United States sanctions against Iran, they said.

Microsoft Pushes Governments to Regulate Facial-Recognition Technology

Microsoft Corp. is urging governments world-wide to enact regulation of facial-recognition technology next year that requires independent assessment of accuracy and bias and prohibits ongoing surveillance of specific people without a court order. The technology giant’s push to police the emerging technology comes as rivals including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, face increasing backlash over their privacy practices from lawmakers and others.

Links Found Between Marriott Hackers, Chinese Government

Hackers behind a massive breach at hotel group Marriott International Inc. left clues suggesting they were working for a Chinese government intelligence gathering operation, according to sources familiar with the matter. Private investigators looking into the breach have found hacking tools, techniques and procedures previously used in attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, said three sources who were not authorized to discuss the company’s private probe into the attack.

U.S. Business Roundtable Recommends National Privacy Law

A broad coalition of more than 200 retailers, banks and technology companies is releasing new recommendations for national privacy legislation in a clear push to get out in front of lawmakers promising to rein in their data collection practices in the next Congress. The Business Roundtable’s consumer privacy legislation framework calls on the United States to adopt a national privacy law that would apply the same data collection requirements to all companies regardless of sector -- while ramping up Federal Trade Commission staffing and funding to enforce the rule.

Australian Parliament Passes Anti-Encryption Legislation to Fight Crime

Australia’s parliament passed some of the world’s toughest anti-encryption legislation, installing a bill that seeks to force Facebook Inc. and other tech giants to help decode messages used in terrorism and organized crime. Under new powers to be given to police and intelligence agencies, companies may be required to help decrypt communications on platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, and even insert code to help capture data.

Giuliani Blames Twitter for 'Traitor' Link He Accidentally Created

In a tweet, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is one of President Trump’s lawyers, said Twitter had “allowed someone to invade my text with a disgusting anti-President message.” He was referring to a tweet in which Mr. Giuliani — by failing to put a space after a period, and starting the next sentence with the word “In” — had inadvertently created a hyperlink, which someone later associated with a website that said, “Donald J. Trump is a traitor to our country.”

U.K. Lawmakers Disclose Emails Showing How Facebook Used Data

Facebook Inc. wielded user data like a bargaining chip, providing access when that sharing might encourage people to spend more time on the social network -- and imposing strict limits on partners in cases where it saw a potential competitive threat, emails show. A trove of internal correspondence, published online by U.K. lawmakers, provides a look into the ways Facebook executives, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, treated information posted by users like a commodity that could be harnessed in service of business goals.

China Announces Punishments for Intellectual Property Theft

China announced an array of punishments that could restrict companies’ access to borrowing and state-funding support over intellectual-property theft, a key sticking point in its trade conflict with the U.S. News of the measures came just days after President Xi Jinping promised to resolve the U.S.’s “reasonable concerns” about IP practices in a statement after meeting President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.

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.