AT&T to Pay $60 Million Fine for Throttling Customers on 'Unlimited' Plans

AT&T has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations it charged millions of customers for “unlimited” data plans while significantly reducing speeds if they used too much data, the Federal Trade Commission announced. In 2011, the carrier began “throttling” — slowing speeds to the point that web browsing and other routine actions became difficult or nearly impossible — customers with unlimited data plans, the FTC alleged.

Twitter Suspends Accounts Linked to Hezbollah, Hamas

Twitter Inc. has suspended accounts linked to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and Palestinian group Hamas after U.S. lawmakers criticized the social-media company for allowing those entities to remain active on the platform even though the State Department has designated both as terrorist organizations. Twitter, on its messaging platform, shows that accounts including Hamas’s English and Arabic language accounts had been suspended for violating its rules.

Florida Police Get Warrant for Amazon Echo Recordings in Murder Case

Police in Hallandale Beach, Fla., have obtained a warrant for recordings from Amazon Echo devices they say were in the house at the time of an alleged murder, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. Hallandale Beach Police Department spokesman Sgt. Pedro Abut confirmed to the Sentinel that “we did receive recordings, and we are in the process of analyzing the information that was sent to us.”

'Revenge Porn' Bill Gets New Push Following Lawmaker's Resignation

A group of 35 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to leading members of the House Judiciary Committee urging them to move forward with legislation on "revenge porn" following Rep. Katie Hill's resignation. The California Democrat left Congress this week after nude photos and allegations that she had inappropriate sexual relationships with congressional and campaign staffers surfaced online.

U.S. Government Opens Security Review of TikiTok Acquisition

The United States government has opened a national security review of a Chinese company’s acquisition of the American company that became TikTok, the hugely popular short-form video app, according to people briefed on the inquiry. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal panel that reviews foreign acquisitions of American firms on national-security grounds, is now reviewing the two-year-old deal after lawmakers raised concerns about TikTok’s growing influence in the United States, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was confidential.

Russia's 'Sovereign Internet' Law Tightens Control Over Cyberspace

A law known as the “sovereign Internet” bill came into force in Russia, tightening state control over the global network, which free speech activists say will strengthen government oversight of the country’s cyberspace. The legislation aims to route Russian web traffic and data through points controlled by state authorities and to build a national Domain Name System to allow the internet to continue working even if Russia is cut off from foreign infrastructure.

Senators Propose Law Requiring Search Engines to Disclose Algorithms

Senate lawmakers proposed bipartisan legislation that would require search engines to disclose the algorithms they use in ranking internet searches and give consumers an option for unfiltered searches. Critics have increasingly complained about algorithms enabling online-search and social-media companies to determine the content users see, with some on the right claiming the result is a form of censorship because certain views may be excluded.

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.

  • Read the article: CNN

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.

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.