EU Finance Commissioner Vows New Rules to Regulate Cryptocurrencies

The European Union’s finance commissioner pledged to propose new rules to regulate virtual currencies, in a reaction to Facebook’s plans to introduce Libra, which the EU considers a risk to financial stability. France and Germany have said that Libra, whose size would dwarf cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, could limit their monetary sovereignty.

Court Says FBI's Electronic Surveillance Activities Violate Privacy Rights

Some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s electronic surveillance activities violated the constitutional privacy rights of Americans swept up in a controversial foreign intelligence program, a secretive surveillance court has ruled. The intelligence community disclosed Tuesday that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year found that the FBI’s pursuit of data about Americans ensnared in a warrantless internet-surveillance program intended to target foreign suspects may have violated the law authorizing the program, as well as the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

Egyptian Authorities Use Cyberattacks to Thwart Dissent Amid Protests

Egyptian authorities are combining cyberattacks with random searches of phones and laptops on the street, as part of a campaign to thwart online dissent fueling rare protests against President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. The intensified policing of social media has added a new dimension to the government’s sweeping clampdown, in which more than 3,000 people have been arrested since protests began on Sept. 20, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based rights group.

New York Attorney General Meets with DOJ, FTC Over Facebook's Practices

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who's leading a multistate antitrust investigation into Facebook, met with officials at the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to raise concerns about the company's market power. "As we have said in the past, we have grave concerns over potential anticompetitive practices by large tech companies," James said in a statement.

Supreme Court Won't Review University's Appeal in Patent Case Against Apple

The U.S. Supreme Court on refused to hear a bid by the University of Wisconsin’s patent licensing arm to reinstate its legal victory against Apple in a fight over computer processor technology that the school claimed the company used without permission in certain iPhones and iPads. The justices, on the first day of their new term, declined to review a lower court’s 2018 decision to throw out the $506 million in damages that Apple was ordered to pay after a jury in 2015 decided the company infringed the university’s patent.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal in Case Over Website Access for Blind

The Supreme Court cleared the way for blind people to sue Domino’s Pizza and other retailers if their websites are not accessible to these people. In a potentially far-reaching move, the justices turned down an appeal from Domino’s and let stand a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling holding that the Americans With Disabilities Act protects access not just to restaurants and stores, but also to the websites and apps of those businesses.

Judge Debunks Concerns About Pixel Count in Suit Over iPhone's Notch

The iPhone’s notch may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but there’s now a lawsuit over it, which alleges that Apple’s advertised screen size and resolution for the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max count pixels that aren’t actually there due to the notch. A federal judge hearing the case, in an all-time great quote, thinks this may not be a big deal: “There doesn’t really seem to be anyone in America who seems to be concerned about it,” he said, according to Law360.

Facebook 'Can't Be a Policeman on the Internet,' Spokesman Says

Facebook Inc. has made mistakes in controlling the use of its data and has improved its monitoring of fake news but can’t be expected to police the global internet, spokesman Nick Clegg said in an interview in El Pais. Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communication said the technology company can identify and warn users that certain content might be false, but that it’s not its role to provide alternatives to individuals so that they can get a more objective perspective.

California Law Aims to Protect Voters, Political Candidates from Deepfakes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill that aims to protect voters and political candidates from deepfakes in time for the 2020 election. AB 730, written by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, prohibits distribution of doctored video or audio of a candidate “with the intent to injure the candidate’s reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate” unless the media is clearly marked as fake.

House Judiciary Committee Questions Spotify in Apple Antitrust Probe

U.S. lawmakers have requested information from Apple critic Spotify as part of an antitrust probe, according to two sources briefed on the investigation into allegations the iPhone maker engages in anti-competitive behavior to support its own apps. The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee reached out to the music streaming service with broad requests for information, according to one source, who added the request to the company was narrowed in follow-up telephone calls.

Trump Campaign Allegedly Targeted by Iranian Hackers

Microsoft said that Iranian hackers, with apparent backing from the government, had made more than 2,700 attempts to identify the email accounts of current and former United States government officials, journalists covering political campaigns and accounts associated with a presidential campaign. Though the company would not identify the presidential campaign involved, two people with knowledge of the hacking, who were not allowed to discuss it publicly, said it was President Trump’s.

Justice Department Wants Access to WhatsApp's Encrypted Messages

The Justice Department has renewed its fight for access to encrypted communications, arguing that it is a vital crime-fighting tool even as technology companies and advocates have countered that it will threaten individual privacy. Attorney General William P. Barr took aim at Facebook’s plan to make WhatsApp and its other messaging services more secure, pressing its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to create a loophole to that goal of full encryption.

E.U. Court of Justice Says Platforms Must Remove Content Worldwide

The top European Union court said that Facebook and other platforms can be required to remove illegal content worldwide, a ruling with global implications that pits the social media giant’s free speech ethos against laws in other countries. The E.U. Court of Justice ruled Facebook and other platforms will need to remove information or block access to any illegal material, including in some instances content that is “equivalent.”

FBI Runs Facebook Ads Targeting, Recruiting Russian Spies

The FBI is running ads on Facebook in the Washington, D.C., area seemingly designed to target and recruit Russian spies as well as those who know about their work, CNN has learned. The ads direct to a page on the FBI Washington, D.C., field office's website that has details in English and in Russian about the counterintelligence team and the address of the FBI field office in the city, "visit us in person," it reads.

  • Read the article: CNN

London Appeals Judges Overturn Ruling for Google on iPhone Privacy

A U.K. lawsuit filed against Google by millions of iPhone users over data-collection claims was given the go-ahead by London appeals judges who overturned an earlier ruling that had thrown out the case. The group, known as Google You Owe Us, were seeking as much as 3.2 billion pounds ($3.9 billion), according to documents filed with the court last year.

Warren Responds to Zuckerberg's Leaked Audio, Defends Consumer Rights

Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren has responded publicly to a leaked attack on her by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying she won’t be bullied out of taking big tech to task for anticompetitive practices. Warren’s subtweeting of the Facebook founder follows a leak in which the Verge obtained two hours of audio from an internal Q&A session with Zuckerberg — publishing a series of snippets.

Subscribe

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.