Facebook Sues Marketing Company for Exploiting Its Login Feature

Facebook filed a federal lawsuit in California on against OneAudience, a marketing company that it says paid app developers to exploit the “login with Facebook” feature to improperly gain access to personal data without users’ permission. The social media company claims that OneAudience harvested users’ data by getting app developers to install a malicious software development kit, or SDK, in their apps.

Privacy Concerns Stop Facebook's Election-Day Reminder Feature in Europe

Facebook Inc. halted its election-day reminder feature in Europe amid concerns raised by its lead privacy watchdog in the European Union. The social network confirmed that the tool, designed to boost voter turnout, “will not be activated during any EU elections” until it addresses potential issues about how users’ information may be handled, Ireland’s data protection commission said in a statement on its website.

Facebook Adding Tool to Track Political Sponsored Content

Facebook Inc. will provide a way for people to track political sponsored content on Facebook and Instagram ahead of the U.S. presidential election, it said. The move comes after U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s campaign started paying popular meme accounts on Facebook-owned Instagram to post content as part of its social media offensive ahead of the 2020 election.

Internet Companies Threaten to Leave Pakistan Over Censorship

When Pakistan’s government unveiled some of the world’s most sweeping rules on internet censorship this month, global internet companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter were expected to comply or face severe penalties — including the potential shutdown of their services. Instead, the tech giants banded together and threatened to leave the country and its 70 million internet users in digital darkness.

Email Scams Become More Sophisticated, Causing Billions in Losses

Federal investigators say that email scams have become sophisticated frauds that are costing American businesses and individuals billions of dollars a year. Estimated losses have soared in the past five years from scams known as business-email compromises, in which swindlers con victims into directing money into accounts controlled by criminals.

Judge on 'Shark Tank' TV Show Loses $388,000 in Email Phishing Scam

"Shark Tank" judge Barbara Corcoran lost nearly $400,000 in an elaborate email scam that tricked her staff. Corcoran said someone acting as her assistant sent an invoice to her bookkeeper earlier this week for a renovation payment. She told People that she had "no reason to be suspicious" about the email because she invests in real estate, so the bookkeeper wired $388,700 to the email address.

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Business Email Scams Keep Growing, Called 'Super Effective'

Despite all the attention given to phishing attacks, and high profile hacks, email still remains the number one place where victims fall prey to bad guys. Business email getting compromised "is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and super effective," says Sam Small, the chief security officer for ZeroFOX, a firm that helps enterprises with security protection.

Ex-Microsoft Software Engineer Convicted of Stealing Digital Currency

A former Microsoft software engineer has been convicted of stealing $10 million worth of digital currency from his former employer. Volodymyr Kvashuk — who worked at Microsoft from August 2016 to June 2018, first as a contractor, then as a full-time employee — was convicted in the US District Court in Seattle after a five-day trial, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.

Appeals Court Says YouTube Not Subject to First Amendment Scrutiny

In a 3-0 decision that could apply to platforms such as Facebook, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle found that YouTube was not a public forum subject to First Amendment scrutiny by judges. It upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Google and YouTube by Prager University, a conservative nonprofit run by radio talk show host Dennis Prager.

EU Review of Google-Fitbit Deal Won't Involve Privacy Regulators

The European Union’s review of Google’s plan to buy Fitbit Inc. won’t involve privacy regulators, the bloc’s antitrust chief insisted, days after data watchdogs warned about how tech giants could use M&A to access citizens’ private information. A panel of EU data regulators raised the alarm last week, saying that the $2.1 billion takeover of fitness tracker Fitbit could “entail a high risk to privacy and data protection” in an unusual statement.

Governments Shut Down Internet Access at Record Pace in 2019

From autocratic Iran to democratic India, governments are cutting people off from the global web with growing frequency and little scrutiny. Parts or all of the internet were shut down at least 213 times in 33 countries last year, the most ever recorded, according to Access Now, a nonprofit that advocates for a free internet and has monitored the practice for a decade.

Twitter Fails to Verify Many Congressional, Gubernatorial Candidates

Twitter has pledged to proactively verify new candidates' accounts this election cycle, but an analysis by The Hill shows that effort falling short. Nearly 90 primary candidates in the five states holding congressional and gubernatorial primaries on Super Tuesday still have not received the company's coveted "blue check," with only a week until the vote.

TSA Bars Employees from Using TikTok to Create Content

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it would bar employees from using the social media app TikTok to create content for the agency after a security review of the app. A spokesperson for the TSA told The Associated Press that a "small number" of agency employees had previously used the app to create videos for outreach purposes, but that the practice would be "discontinued."

Father of Murdered TV Reporter Files FTC Complaint Over YouTube Video

Andy Parker's daughter, Alison Parker, was shot and killed on live television more than four years ago. Now, Andy Parker is taking on YouTube and parent company Google to remove graphic content like the murder videos that still exist of his daughter from the video site. Parker along with Georgetown University Law Center’s Civil Rights Clinic filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against YouTube and Google for deceptive practices on its platform.

Apple, TikTok Refuse to Testify at Hearing on Relationships with China

Apple and TikTok each have declined a request to testify at a March congressional hearing that would have probed their relationships with China, a move that threatens to ratchet up tensions with federal lawmakers who see Beijing as a privacy and security threat. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), one of TikTok’s leading critics, had invited the two tech firms to appear at a March 4 session, his office confirmed.

Bloomberg's Major Push on Social Media Tests Boundaries

Through his money and his willingness to experiment, Michael R. Bloomberg has poked holes in the already slapdash rules for political campaigns on social media. His digitally savvy campaign for the Democratic nomination has shown that if a candidate is willing to push against the boundaries of what social media companies will and won’t allow, the companies won’t be quick to push back.

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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.