Google Employees Say Company Still Working on Censored Chinese Search Engine

Google employees have carried out their own investigation into the company’s plan to launch a censored search engine for China and say they are concerned that development of the project remains ongoing, The Intercept can reveal. Late last year, bosses moved engineers away from working on the controversial project, known as Dragonfly, and said that there were no current plans to launch it.

French Finance Minister Says Internet Tax Could Yield 500 Million Euros

A three percent tax on the French revenue of large internet companies could yield 500 million euros (568.5 million pounds) per year, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper the tax is aimed at companies with worldwide digital revenue of at least 750 million and French revenue of more than 25 million euros.

North Korean Hackers Called Active While Trump Met with Kim Jong-un

North Korean hackers who have targeted American and European businesses for 18 months kept up their attacks even as President Trump was meeting with North Korea’s leader in Hanoi. The attacks, which include efforts to hack into banks, utilities and oil and gas companies, began in 2017, according to researchers at the cybersecurity company McAfee, a time when tensions between North Korea and the United States were flaring.

Facebook, Instagram Sue Chinese Companies, Individuals Selling Fake Accounts

Facebook Inc. said that it filed a lawsuit along with Instagram in U.S. federal court against four companies and three people based in the People’s Republic of China for promoting the sale of fake accounts, likes and followers. In a blog post, the company said the accused people and companies promoted the sales on both Facebook and Instagram as well as other online service providers including Amazon, Apple, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.

D.C. Opposes Facebook's Effort to Dismiss Consumer-Protection Lawsuit

Facebook Inc. must be held accountable for misleading District of Columbia users about its information-sharing practices, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said in papers opposing the social network’s request to have a consumer-protection lawsuit thrown out. “This court should allow the D.C. Attorney General’s efforts to protect D.C. consumers from a company that was recently labeled a ‘digital gangster’ in another government inquiry to proceed,” Racine in the filing with District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Fern Saddler.

Congressman Questions Amazon About Sales of Anti-Vaccination Products

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed Amazon over popular anti-vaccination products sold on its online store, accusing the retail giant of allowing "harmful" content to "thrive and spread." Schiff's comments, made in a letter addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, comes amid increasing scrutiny of tech giants over anti-vaccine content spreading on their platforms.

Google Won't Remove App That Lets Saudi Men Track Women's Travel

Google told California Rep. Jackie Speier that it wouldn't ban Saudi Arabia's Absher app from Google Play despite calls from Speier and other members of Congress to remove it. The mobile software lets Saudi men control and track travel permissions for women and migrant workers, leading to an outcry that Google and Apple were promoting "sixteenth century tyranny."

Huawei Pleads Not Guilty to Stealing Trade Secrets from T-Mobile

Two divisions of the Chinese networking giant Huawei pleaded not guilty to charges that it stole trade secrets from America’s third-largest wireless carrier, T-Mobile, in a bid to copy its technology. In federal court in Seattle, Huawei — one of the world’s biggest wireless equipment makers — said it was not guilty of committing trade secret theft, nor of conspiring to hide such a plan.

N.Y. Regulator Investigating Facebook for Collecting Data from Phone Apps

A New York regulator is ramping up a promised investigation of how Facebook Inc. gathered sensitive personal information from popular smartphone applications, after a report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that some apps were sending the social-media giant data, including users’ body weight and menstrual cycles. The state’s Department of Financial Services sent a series of letters seeking information and documents from Facebook and the developers behind the at least 11 apps mentioned in the Journal’s reporting, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Ireland Data Protection Commission Reports 10 Ongoing Facebook Probes

An office that’s responsible for enforcing European data privacy laws against many of the biggest U.S. tech firms is spending much of its time on one company: Facebook. The Ireland Data Protection Commission said in a report that as of Dec. 31 it had 15 ongoing investigations of multinational tech companies. Ten of the investigations were about Facebook or its subsidiaries, Instagram and WhatsApp.

TikTok Video-Sharing App Agrees to $5.7 Million Child Privacy Settlement

TikTok, a popular video-sharing app, has agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children. The FTC’s complaint, filed by the Department of Justice, alleged that TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA.

Russia Sentences Cyber Intelligence Official to Prison for Treason

A court in Moscow sentenced a senior Russian cyber intelligence official and an executive at a cybersecurity firm to lengthy prison sentences on treason charges. Moscow's District Military Court, which has been hearing the top-secret case for nearly two years behind closed doors, sentenced Col. Sergei Mikhailov, former deputy head of the FSB's Information Security Center, to 22 years in prison and a fine.

Justice Dep't, Lawmakers Consider Changes to Music-Licensing Rules

Justice Department officials and lawmakers are considering an overhaul of longstanding music-licensing rules that have pitted songwriters and publishers against the businesses, broadcasters and digital streaming services that want to play their compositions. The government’s review could have major implications on the multibillion-dollar music industry.

FTC Settles Complaint with Company for Posting Fake Amazon Reviews

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has successfully brought the first ever case against using fraudulent, paid Amazon reviews to falsely advertise an online product, the agency announced. The company in question, named Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and owned by Naftula Jacobowitz, paid a third-party website to write five-star Amazon reviews for a weight-loss supplement called garcinia cambogia.

Twitter Permanently Suspends Far-Right Activist Trying to Influence 2020 Election

Twitter has permanently suspended Jacob Wohl, a far-right activist who previously tried to fabricate evidence about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, for creating fake accounts in an alleged attempt to manipulate the 2020 presidential election. Twitter confirmed in a statement that Wohl’s efforts violated its rules that prohibit users from creating misleading accounts to influence conversations on the site — a policy Twitter has sought to enforce aggressively since Russian agents tried to destabilize U.S. politics on social media during the presidential election four years earlier.

European Leaders Seek Calm, Not Concern, Over U.S. Ban on Chinese Tech Vendors

Facts not fears should decide the future of telecoms network security in Europe, industry leaders and policy chiefs said, brushing off U.S. calls for a ban on Chinese vendors. Europe has become the main battleground in a U.S. campaign to rid Western networks of Chinese telecoms equipment, with Washington accusing Huawei Technologies of spying for Beijing, allegations the company has repeatedly denied.

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.