Justice Department Requests Documents from Google in Antitrust Probe

Google said that the Justice Department has requested records related to its prior antitrust investigations, marking the tech giant’s first major acknowledgment that it’s a subject of a federal competition probe. The civil-investigative demand — acknowledged in a securities filing and a blog post — comes weeks after Justice Department officials said they would open a broad review of big tech, including search.

Web Server Exposes Data on Job Applicants, Including from Monster

An exposed web server storing résumés of job seekers — including from recruitment site Monster — has been found online. The server contained résumés and CVs for job applicants spanning 2014 and 2017, many of which included private information like phone numbers and home addresses, but also email addresses and a person’s prior work experience.

Senator Raises Privacy Concerns About Ring Doorbell Sharing with Police

Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) is seeking answers from the doorbell-camera firm Ring about its hundreds of video-sharing partnerships with U.S. police agencies, citing “serious privacy and civil liberties concerns” that he said could put people at risk. In a letter to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, whose company bought Ring last year, Markey requested details on the company’s coordination with law enforcement, its marketing to consumers and the more than 400 police partnerships it has across the country.

419 Million Facebook Records Exposed on Unprotected Server

Hundreds of millions of phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts have been found online. The exposed server contained more than 419 million records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133 million records on U.S.-based Facebook users, 18 million records of users in the U.K., and another with more than 50 million records on users in Vietnam.

Federal Law Enforcement Officials Meet with Tech Firms to Discuss Election

Federal law enforcement officials huddled with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter to discuss election security ahead of the 2020 presidential race, according to several U.S. and industry sources, amid heightened concerns that social-media sites are still vulnerable to the spread of disinformation online. The meeting at Facebook’s headquarters in Silicon Valley included security officials from each of the four tech companies as well as representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI, the sources said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting on record.

Google Agrees to $170 Million Fine for YouTube Children's Privacy Violations

Google agreed to pay a record $170 million fine and make changes to protect children’s privacy on YouTube, as regulators said the video site had knowingly and illegally harvested personal information from children and used it to profit by targeting them with ads. Critics denounced the agreement, dismissing the fine as paltry and the required changes as inadequate for protecting children’s privacy.

Competition Commissioner Says EU Examining Facebook's Cryptocurrency

EU regulators are examining Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency to see if it harms competition, Europe’s antitrust regulator said, the latest watchdog to voice concerns about the social network’s move into financial services. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said scrutiny was justified even though the new digital coin, to be backed by four official currencies and available to billions of Facebook’s users around the world, has yet to be launched.

Rival Tells Irish Data Commissioner Google Undermining Privacy Policy

Google is secretly using hidden web pages that feed the personal data of its users to advertisers, undermining its own policies and circumventing EU privacy regulations that require consent and transparency, according to one of its smaller rivals. New evidence submitted to an investigation by the Irish data regulator, which oversees Google’s European business, accused the U.S. tech company of “exploiting personal data without sufficient control or concern over data protection”.

Big Businesses Lobbying Against Implementation of Calif. Privacy Law

Adopted last year, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) grants Web users the right to see the personal information that companies collect about them and stop it from being sold. But powerful business organizations — representing retailers, marketers and tech giants — have responded by seeking sweeping revisions to the law before it goes into effect.

YouTube Takes Down 100,000+ Videos Under New Hate Speech Policy

YouTube said that it has removed more than 100,000 videos marked as hate speech under the platform's new policy against bigoted and supremacist content. The video-sharing giant said it removed more than 17,000 channels and 100,000 videos for violating its hate speech policy between April and June — the month in which the policy was instituted — a five-time increase in the number of removals in the first three months of the year.

Huawei Accuses U.S. of Launching Cyberattacks on Its Networks

China’s Huawei Technologies Co. accused the U.S. of “using every tool at its disposal” to disrupt its business, including launching cyberattacks on its networks and instructing law enforcement to “menace” its employees. The telecommunications giant also said law enforcement in the U.S. have searched, detained and arrested Huawei employees and its business partners, and have sent FBI agents to the homes of its workers to pressure them to collect information on behalf of the U.S.

Senate Antitrust Panel Sets Date for Hearing on Big Technology Companies

The Senate’s antitrust panel will meet to discuss concerns that tech giants, such as Google or Amazon, seek to buy smaller rivals in order to head off competition. Senators Mike Lee and Amy Klobuchar, the chairman and top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, said the hearing was scheduled for Sept. 24 but did not list witnesses.

Defense Department Launches Project to Fight Disinformation Attacks

Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,” as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants custom software that can unearth fakes hidden among more than 500,000 stories, photos, video and audio clips.

Hackers Take Over Twitter CEO's Twitter Account, Post Racist Messages

Hackers took over the Twitter account of Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, and used the account to broadcast a string of racist messages and bomb threats. In the posts, the attackers claimed that Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters would be bombed, and used Mr. Dorsey’s account to retweet posts from several individuals appearing to claim responsibility for the hack.

Google Researchers Disclose Hacking Campaign Targeting iPhones

Security researchers at Google uncovered a “sustained” — at least two years — and indiscriminate campaign to hack iPhones through certain websites, allowing attackers to steal messages, files and track location data every 60 seconds. In a deep-dive blog post, Ian Beer, a security expert on Google’s Project Zero, detailed how hackers had been using malicious websites to exploit an iPhone software vulnerability. The post did not name the websites or say how many people were victimized.

Google May Pay Up to $200M to Resolve FTC Probe of YouTube Child Privacy

Google has agreed to pay between $150 and $200 million to resolve an FTC investigation into YouTube over alleged violations of a children’s privacy law, according to a person familiar with the matter. The FTC voted 3-2 along party lines to approve the settlement, sending it over to the Justice Department as part of the review process, the person confirmed. Details about other terms of the settlement were not immediately available.

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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.