Three States to Allow Some Voters to Case Ballots Online

A few states are allowing some voters to cast ballots over the Internet in coming elections, overriding concerns from cybersecurity experts about tampering or technical glitches as election officials grapple with voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. At least three states — Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia — will allow small slices of their electorates to use an online voting tool in presidential primaries or local elections.

Tumblr to Delete Reblogs Containing Hate Content from Terminated Blogs

Tumblr announced an update to its hate speech policy, announcing on its blog that it would start cutting down on the reach of posts considered hate speech by removing all reblogs of terminated content. Tumblr says it’s specifically targeting speech from Nazis and other white supremacist groups, which it says still be amplified on its platform through reblogs even after the original post was removed for violating its hate speech policies.

Apple, Google to Ban Location Tracking in Coronavirus-Tracking Apps

Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Apple and Google, whose operating systems power 99% of smart phones, said last month they would work together to create a system for notifying people who have been near others who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments, by Phone, in Booking.com Trademark Case

The U.S. Supreme Court hear arguments for the first time via telephone, with the first case from online travel search engine Booking.com, which is appealing a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refusal to grant a trademark to the company. Solicitor General Erica Ross said "the core problem with Booking.com is that it allows [Booking.com] to monopolize booking on the Internet" to the exclusion of other sites like hotelbooking.com.

  • Read the article: NPR

House Committee Wants Bezos to Testify About Using Data from Sellers

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee called on Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos to testify to the panel about allegations that the online retailer uses data from its own third-party sellers to create competing products. In a letter to Bezos signed by Democratic and Republican members of the panel, the lawmakers referred to an April 23 Wall Street Journal story about Amazon, saying, “If the reporting in the Wall Street Journal article is accurate, then statements Amazon made to the committee about the company’s business practices appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious.”

Goldman Sachs Cybersecurity Czar to Help Capital One After Data Breach

One of Wall Street’s top cybersecurity czars is leaving Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help take charge of the cleanup at Capital One Financial Corp., which was left reeling after one of the largest data breaches at a major U.S. bank. Andy Ozment, previously a senior cyber official in President Barack Obama’s administration, is leaving Goldman three years after becoming the firm’s leading information-security executive.

Security Lapse Reveals Coronavirus Database at Indian Cell Network

India’s largest cell network Jio, a subsidiary of Reliance, launched its coronavirus self-test symptom checker in late March, just before the Indian government imposed a strict nationwide lockdown to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. But a security lapse exposed one of the symptom checker’s core databases to the internet without a password, TechCrunch has found.

Breach at Australian Home Affairs Department Discloses Migrant Data

Privacy experts have blasted the home affairs department for a data breach revealing the personal details of 774,000 migrants and people aspiring to migrate to Australia, including partial names and the outcome of applications. At a time the federal government is asking Australians to trust the security of data collected by its Covid-Safe contact tracing app, privacy experts are appalled by the breach, which they say is just the latest in a long line of cybersecurity blunders.

Social Media Sites Refuse to Remove Trump's Comments on Disinfectants

After President Trump suggested that disinfectants and ultraviolet light were possible treatments for the virus, his remarks immediately found their way onto Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites, and people rushed to defend the president’s statements as well as mock them. But Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have declined to remove Mr. Trump’s statements posted online in video clips and transcriptions of the briefing, saying he did not specifically direct people to pursue the unproven treatments.

ADL Report Says 'Steam Platform Harbors Extremists'

The Anti-Defamation League, a 107-year-old nonprofit founded to fight identity-based discrimination, released its report on “how the Steam platform harbors extremists.” “It was disturbingly easy for ADL’s researchers to locate Steam users who espouse extremist beliefs, using language associated with white supremacist ideology and subcultures, including key terms, common numeric hate symbols, and acronyms,” the report reads.

In Antitrust Move, Facebook to Let Users Transfer Photos to Google

Facebook Inc. will allow users in the United States and Canada to transfer photos and videos to a rival tech platform for the first time — a step that could assuage antitrust concerns by giving users an option to easily leave the company’s services, the social media network said. The tool lets Facebook users transfer data stored on its servers directly to another photo storage service, in this case Google Photos — a feature known as data portability.

FBI Director Argued for WhatsApp Encryption in Prior Legal Practice

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has been pushing tech companies to give law-enforcement authorities access to encrypted messages, once advocated the opposite view when representing Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp in a legal case involving the messaging service’s use of such technology, according to a new court filing. Mr. Wray was involved in the legal matter, which remains under seal, before he took the top job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was employed as a partner at King & Spalding LLC, Facebook said in a court filing.

ICANN Rejects Plan to Transfer Control of .org Domain Names

The organization that oversees Internet domain names has rejected a proposal to transfer management of the .org top-level domain from a nonprofit to a private equity group. ICANN said it wouldn’t approve the sale of .org operator Public Interest Registry because it would create “unacceptable uncertainty” for the domain, citing concerns about debt and the intentions of the for-profit firm Ethos Capital.

Democrats Seek Funding for Affordable Internet Access in Stimulus Package

A group of Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups are teaming up to push for federal funding to ensure affordable Internet access nationwide in the next coronavirus stimulus package. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) joined a dozen of the groups, including Common Sense Media and Demand Progress, in a livestream Wednesday to make the case for new funding.

U.S. Patent Office Refuses to Allow Artificial Intelligence Systems as Inventors

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ruled that artificial intelligence systems cannot be credited as an inventor in a patent, the agency announced. The group behind the applications had argued that the law’s references to an inventor as an “individual” could be applied to a machine, but the USPTO said this interpretation was too broad.

U.S. Trade Regulator Cites Counterfeit Goods on Foreign Amazon Sites

Several of Amazon.com Inc.’s foreign websites have been added to the U.S. trade regulator’s “Notorious Markets” report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and piracy concerns. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative cited allegations of counterfeit goods sold on the Seattle-based online retailer’s websites in Canada, Germany, France, India and the United Kingdom.

Appeals Court Judges Question Wiretap Act Ruling for Facebook

Federal appeals court judges asked prosecutors why a lower court could seal a ruling that absolved Facebook from having to wiretap a criminal suspect using one of the company’s encrypted services. All three members of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewing the matter had tough questions for the U.S. Justice Department’s support for secrecy in a rare higher-court examination of the government’s power to compel technical assistance.

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.