Two Democrats Ask Barr to Stop Seeking Backdoors on Encryption

A pair of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr urging him to stop government requests for encryption backdoors, which allow the government to obtain certain user information from tech companies. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) argued that the Justice Department's push to limit such encryption "is not just hypocritical, but it has been repeatedly criticized by cryptographers and other leading cybersecurity experts."

Giuliani Asked Apple to Reset His iPhone After He Forgot Password

Less than a month after he was named President Donald Trump’s cybersecurity adviser in 2017, Rudy Giuliani walked into an Apple store in downtown San Francisco. He wasn’t looking for a new gadget. Giuliani was looking for help. He was locked out of his iPhone because he had forgotten the passcode and entered the wrong one at least 10 times, according to two people familiar with the matter and a photo of an internal Apple store memo obtained by NBC News.

Washington State's Limits on Political Ads Create Challenges Online

Washington state boasts some of the strictest campaign finance laws in the country, and after threats of court battles last year, both Facebook and Google decided to ban political ads in the state entirely rather than figure out the nuances of compliance. But those bans haven’t stopped local politicians. Instead, it’s resulted in a tangle of uneven enforcement and confusing rules, making it a cautionary tale for what a poorly implemented ad ban might mean for the 2020 campaigns.

California Attorney General Curiously Absent from Google Antitrust Probe

California attorney general Xavier Becerra’s curious no-show from the public announcements about an antitrust investigation into Google has provided one of the more enduring questions about the scrutiny of the tech industry sweeping through Washington and state capitals. What is Mr. Becerra — whose state is home to most of the country’s biggest tech companies, including Google and Facebook — up to?

Twitter to Ban All Political Ads to Avoid 'Significant Risks,' Dorsey Says

Twitter said it would ban all advertisements about political candidates, elections and hot-button policy issues such as abortion and immigration, a significant shift that comes in response to growing concerns that politicians are seizing on the vast reach of social media to deceive voters ahead of the 2020 election. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced the move in a series of tweets, stressing that paying for political speech has the effect of “forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.”

Facebook Suspends Russian Accounts for Interfering in African Politics

Facebook Inc. said it had suspended three networks of Russian accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries, and were tied to a Russian businessman accused of meddling in past U.S. elections. The campaigns used almost 200 fake and compromised accounts to target people in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya, Facebook said.

Facebook to Pay $644,000 U.K. Fine in Cambridge Analytica Case

Facebook has agreed to pay a 500,000 pound ($644,000) fine for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of data by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Britain’s information rights regulator said. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced questioning by U.S. and EU lawmakers over how the political consultancy obtained the personal data of 87 million Facebook users from a researcher.

Two Men Plead Guilty in Hacking Cases Against Uber, LinkedIn

Two men pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose, Calif., to charges of computer hacking and an extortion conspiracy, capping a thorny legal saga that ensnared tech companies like Uber and LinkedIn in data breach scandals. The resolution of the case comes as Americans grapple with theft and misuse of their personal information amid serious data breaches at companies from Facebook and Equifax to Target and Marriott over the past decade.

Man Registers to Run for Calif. Governor Just to Buy False Facebook Ads

A San Francisco man is going to extreme lengths to call out Facebook's controversial policy of allowing politicians to run false ads on its platform. Adriel Hampton, a political activist who runs his own marketing firm in San Francisco, registered as a candidate in California's 2022 gubernatorial election -- not with the primary goal of becoming governor, but so he can run false Facebook ads of his own.

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Australia Proposal Would Use Facial Recognition to Screen Porn Watchers

The Australian government has proposed using a facial recognition system it is developing to verify that people who seek to watch pornography online are of legal age. Current law in Australia does not prohibit minors from viewing pornography, but the federal government is considering proposals that would require people to prove their age before watching the material.

EU Antitrust Regulators Probing Apple Question Mobile Payment Systems

Apple faces more regulatory woes in Europe as EU antitrust regulators ask online sales companies whether they have been told to use its mobile payment service instead of rival services, an EU document seen by Reuters showed. In a questionnaire sent in August, the European Commission said it had information Apple may have restricted online payments for the purchase of goods and services made via merchant apps or websites, in breach of EU antitrust rules.

WhatsApp Sues Cybersurveillance Firm for Spying on Journalists, Activists

WhatsApp sued the Israeli cybersurveillance firm NSO Group in federal court, claiming the company used the popular messaging service in a wide-ranging spy campaign on journalists and human-rights activists. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, claims in the lawsuit that an NSO Group program used WhatsApp to spy on more than 1,400 targets in 20 countries, including 100 journalists and human rights activists.

Congressman Says Facebook Shouldn't Accept Political Ads with Lies

Rep. David Cicilline is working on legislation targeting Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians to lie in ads, insisting that Congress has a "responsibility to prohibit" the social media giant from making money off information it knows to be false. The Rhode Island Democrat at the helm of the House antitrust investigation into Big Tech says it's "not acceptable" for Facebook to insist it won't fact-check or remove politicians' ads even when they contain false information.

China's Parliament Passes Law on Cryptography as Digital Currency Looms

China’s largely rubber stamp parliament has passed a new law on cryptography as the country gears up to launch its own digital currency, state media reported. China’s central bank set up a research team in 2014 to explore launching its own digital currency to cut the costs of circulating traditional paper money and boost policymakers’ control of money supply.

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