FTC Announces Investigation of Privacy Practices at Internet Providers

The Federal Trade Commission announced a broad inquiry into the privacy practices of internet service providers requesting large companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to hand over nonpublic information describing how they handle consumer data. It’s a major step toward monitoring and regulating how much data ISPs are allowed to collect on their customers, and how widely that data can be shared.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal from Zappos on Class-Action Data Breach Suit

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Amazon's online shoe retailer Zappos, a move that will allow a class-action lawsuit over a hack that exposed the personal data of 24 million customers to move forward. Zappos was seeking to appeal a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that said the lawsuit should continue because the 2012 data breach left customers vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.

French Muslim Group Sues Facebook, YouTube Over Christchurch Shooting Video

A group representing French Muslims is suing Facebook and YouTube over their handling of a video showing the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this month, Agence France-Presse reported. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) filed the suit against the U.S. tech giants for "broadcasting a message with violent content abetting terrorism, or of a nature likely to seriously violate human dignity and liable to be seen by a minor," according to the complaint, which was seen by AFP.

European Digital Chief Wants to Share More Data, Reject U.S. Ban on Huawei

The European Commission will urge EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks but will ignore U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies, four people familiar with the matter said. While the guidance does not have legal force, it will carry political weight which can eventually lead to national legislation in European Union countries.

Family Tracking App Exposed Locations Without Password Protections

A popular family tracking app was leaking the real-time locations of more than 238,000 users for weeks after the developer left a server exposed without a password. The app, Family Locator, built by Australia-based software house React Apps, allows families to track each other in real-time, such as spouses or parents wanting to know where their children are.

FEMA Says Sensitive Information on 2 Million U.S. Disaster Survivors Disclosed

The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared personal addresses and banking information of more than 2 million U.S. disaster survivors in what the agency acknowledged was a “major privacy incident.” The data mishap, discovered recently and the subject of a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, occurred when the agency shared sensitive, personally identifiable information of disaster survivors who used FEMA’S Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, according to officials at FEMA.

Founder of 8chan Says Website Has Gone Too Far After Christchurch Shootings

Fredrick Brennan founded the website 8chan more than five years ago as a no-holds-barred bastion of unconstrained speech devoted to critiquing what he saw as the authoritarianism of leftist culture and politics. Now, he says, it has gone too far. Mr. Brennan, a former Brooklynite who cut ties with the site in December, said he believed 8chan’s administrators were too slow to remove the post from Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter Brenton Tarrant and posts on the site’s message boards that incite violence.

Homeland Security Warns Heart Devices Contain Cybersecurity Vulnerability

As many as 750,000 heart devices made by Medtronic PLC contain a serious cybersecurity vulnerability that could let an attacker with sophisticated insider knowledge harm a patient by altering programming on an implanted defibrillator, company and federal officials said. The Homeland Security Department, which oversees security in critical U.S. infrastructure including medical devices, issued an alert describing two types of computer-hacking vulnerabilities in 16 different models of Medtronic implantable defibrillators sold around the world, including some still on the market today.

Facebook Employees Aware of Cambridge Analytica Woes Earlier Than Reported

Facebook employees were aware of concerns about “improper data-gathering practices” by Cambridge Analytica months before the Guardian first reported, in December 2015, that the political consultancy had obtained data on millions from an academic. The concerns appeared in a court filing by the attorney general for Washington, D.C., and were subsequently confirmed by Facebook.

Facebook Left 'Hundreds of Millions' of Passwords Exposed to Employees

Facebook Inc. said that it had left “hundreds of millions” of users’ passwords exposed in plain text, potentially visible to the company’s employees, marking another major privacy and security headache for a tech giant already under fire for mishandling people’s personal information. Facebook said it believed the passwords were not visible to anyone outside the company, and had no evidence that its employees “internally abused or improperly accessed them” — but said it would notify users of its namesake social network, and of its photo-sharing site Instagram, that they had been affected.

Europe Fines Google $1.7 Billion for Antitrust Advertising Violations

European authorities fined Google 1.5 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising market, continuing its efforts to rein in the world’s biggest technology companies. The fine, worth about $1.7 billion, is the third against Google by the European Union since 2017, reinforcing the region’s position as the world’s most aggressive watchdog of an industry with an increasingly powerful role in society and the global economy.

Facebook Settles Discrimination Lawsuits by Agreeing to Ad Changes

Facebook said it will make major changes to its rules for advertisers in order to settle a string of lawsuits alleging its platform enables discrimination in housing, credit and employment. The social media platform called the settlement “historic” and expressed gratitude to the National Fair Housing Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union, two of the groups that sued it in the first place.

Google to Give EU Android Users Browser Choice as Part of Compliance

Google plans to ask all Android smartphone users in Europe whether they want to switch to competing search engines or web browsers, one of two new concessions the search giant is offering to stave off complaints — and potential fines — from European Union antitrust regulators. The choice is part of its compliance with a 2018 EU decision that found Google had abused the dominance of Android to strong-arm phone makers into installing its eponymous search engine and Chrome web browser on mobile phones.

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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.