Republican FTC Member Says Antitrust Laws Won't Help Privacy Concerns

A Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission voiced skepticism that government antitrust enforcement against big tech companies will lead to better privacy protections for consumers. Commissioner Noah Phillips, speaking at Stanford Law School, said competition in tech markets, as well as privacy for consumers, are both important issues, but ones that can pull in different directions.

Privacy Scandal Prompts Cybersecurity Firm to Close Analytics Business

British cybersecurity company Avast will close the Jumpshot analytics business at the center of a data privacy scandal, it said, putting hundreds of jobs at risk and deepening a slide in its shares. Avast allegedly collected data on what many of its users did online and sent it to Jumpshot, which then offered to sell the information to clients, media reports said.

Facebook Agrees to $550M Settlement in Facial Recognition Technology Case

Facebook said that it had agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology in Illinois, giving privacy groups a major victory that again raised questions about the social network’s data-mining practices. The case stemmed from Facebook’s photo-labeling service, Tag Suggestions, which uses face-matching software to suggest the names of people in users’ photos.

Dozens of Servers Hacked at U.N. Offices in Geneva, Vienna

Sophisticated hackers infiltrated U.N. offices in Geneva and Vienna last year in an apparent espionage operation, and their identity and the extent of the data they obtained is unknown. An internal confidential document from the United Nations, leaked to The New Humanitarian and seen by The Associated Press, says dozens of servers were compromised including at the U.N. human rights office, which collects sensitive data and has often been a lightning rod of criticism from autocratic governments for exposing rights abuses.

  • Read the article: Time

Warren Urges New Laws to Fight Misinformation for Suppressing Voting

Presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled a new plan to fight disinformation, aiming to stem the effect of the Russian troll campaigns that plagued the 2016 election. In particular, Warren proposes harsher laws against spreading misinformation for the purpose of voter suppression, as in ads spreading the wrong date for election day.

Pinterest Working with U.S. Census Bureau to Remove Misinformation

Pinterest, the feel-good social media site known for wedding planning and scrapbooking, announced that it is partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau to remove any misinformation about the 2020 census from its platform. Pinterest is the latest social media network to announce it is banning all posts that could keep people in the U.S. from participating in the 2020 census, a vital demographic survey that determines everything from congressional representation to government funding.

Zuckerberg Plans Brussels Visit to Meet with EU Officials Amid Probes

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is slated to visit Brussels in mid-February, meeting with European Union officials as the social media giant fends off antitrust and privacy scrutiny over how it handles user data. Zuckerberg’s trip to the EU capital follows a recent visit by Alphabet Inc.’s chief Sundar Pichai and comes as the EU is due to unveil its plans to regulate artificial intelligence several days later.

Canadian Panel Pushes for Tax Collections on U.S. Tech Companies

Ottawa should require U.S. tech companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Facebook to collect the same taxes as Canadian companies and also be subject to the same requirements for supporting domestically produced content, a Canadian government-mandated panel recommended. “Our recommendations for reform are practical and actionable providing the legislative powers and regulatory tools necessary to seize the opportunities and address the risks of the digital age,” the panel’s chairwoman Janet Yale, a veteran Canadian telecoms executive, said in a press release accompanying the report.

Read the article: Reuters

Zuckerberg Says New 'Off-Facebook Activity' Tool Gives Users More Control

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg used Data Privacy Day to give details about a new feature designed to give people more control over how they are tracked by the social network across the Internet. Zuckerberg used a Facebook blog post to say the Off-Facebook Activity tool is now available to all of the company’s approximately 2.4 billion users worldwide.

Lawmakers Report Progress on First Comprehensive Online Privacy Bill

Key lawmakers maintained that they are making progress in their efforts to put together the country's first comprehensive online privacy bill after hitting several bumps in Congress late last year. At the tech-funded State of the Net conference in Washington, D.C., lawmakers on the relevant House and Senate committees signaled they are grappling with the same obstacles that resulted in Democrats and Republicans putting out separate versions of a privacy bill last year — but insisted they're still dedicated to bipartisan negotiations.

European Alliance Seeks More Regulation on Online Privacy, Counterfeiting

Europe’s luxury brands want EU regulators to take a tougher line against online retailing giants like Amazon and Alibaba on issues like data protection and counterfeiting, the head of a leading industry group said. The call by Andreas Kaufmann, president of the European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance (ECCIA) and chairman of Germany’s Leica Camera AG, comes as the European Commission overhauls its regulatory and policy approach to tech companies.

More Americans Concerned About Privacy Online, Eavesdropping

Anxiety levels over privacy and security are peaking as the relentless collection of online data and the steady drumbeat of data incursions and breaches take a toll. People are worried like never before about eavesdropping by smart home devices such as Google Home and the Amazon Echo or having their microphone tapped to target them with personalized ads and increasingly they want a say over how their personal information gets used, according to a survey released to observe Data Privacy Day.

Social Media Companies Trying to Combat Fake Info About Coronavirus

The rapid spread of the coronavirus in China and around the world has sent Facebook, Google and Twitter scrambling to prevent a different sort of malady — a surge of half-truths and outright falsehoods about the deadly outbreak. The three Silicon Valley tech giants long have struggled to curtail dangerous health disinformation, including posts, photos and videos that seek to scare people away from much-needed vaccines.

Facebook, DOJ Urge Judge to Approve $5 Billion Privacy Settlement

Facebook and the Justice Department are urging a federal judge to approve the $5 billion deal the Federal Trade Commission reached with Facebook to settle Cambridge Analytica privacy complaints. The landmark settlement was challenged in July by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, known as EPIC, and is under review by Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Tech Giants Push for Regulation at Davos, Hoping to Steer Outcome

Facing antitrust investigations and a growing backlash over privacy, encryption, artificial intelligence and content monitoring, leaders at tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. are now calling for new laws on a range of issues — even though some have worked to torpedo others designed to restrict their activities. Their push to join in the policy debate, which was on display at the World Economic Forum in Davos, is motivated in part by a sense that a wave of new regulation is inevitable.

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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.