Judge Skeptical of Apple's Request to Extend Deadline for App Store Changes

A federal judge expressed skepticism toward Apple Inc.’s request to cancel a December deadline to change the lucrative business model for its App Store while the iPhone maker’s legal fight with Epic Games Inc. is on appeal. Apple is asking U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to let the company move at its own pace to tweak rules to allow developers to steer customers to payment methods outside the App Store, an overhaul the judge ordered in September that could cost the tech giant a few billion dollars annually.

Meta to Limit Facebook Ads Based on Health, Race, Political Affiliation

Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, said that it planned to eliminate advertisers’ ability to target people with promotions based on their interactions with content related to health, race and ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation and thousands of other topics. The move, which takes effect on Jan. 19, affects advertisers on Meta’s apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Messenger and the company’s audience network, which places ads in third-party apps.

Amazon, Weber Sue Unknown Sellers of Counterfeit Grill Covers

Amazon and Weber are seeking to legally bar sellers who listed allegedly counterfeit grill covers from listing any products on Amazon in the future and to hold them accountable for breaking counterfeiting laws. The challenge is that neither company knows the sellers' true identities, and the only locations the firms have are business addresses in China provided by the sellers when they signed up with Amazon.

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Israel Lobbying U.S. to Lift Sanctions on Surveillance Firm NSO Group

Hacking software sold by the NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, has been used to spy on journalists, opposition groups and rights activists. There have been so many accusations of abuse that the Biden administration slapped sanctions on the company last week. But the company’s biggest backer, the government of Israel, considers the software a crucial element of its foreign policy and is lobbying Washington to remove the company from the blacklist, two senior Israeli officials said.

Defunct Photo App Phhhoto Files Antitrust Suit Against Facebook

Defunct photo app Phhhoto is suing Meta, formerly Facebook, on antitrust grounds, claiming the social media platform feigned interest in working with it, but then copied its features and hid its name from search results, effectively driving it out of business. Phhhoto’s technology allowed users to capture five frames “in a single point-and-shoot burst,” which could be looped into a short video (a phhhoto) to be shared either on its platform or Instagram.

SolarWinds Investors File Suit for Failing to Monitor Cybersecurity Risks

SolarWinds Corp. investors have sued the software company's directors, alleging they knew about and failed to monitor cybersecurity risks to the company ahead of a breach that created a vulnerability in thousands of its customers' systems. The lawsuit filed in Delaware appears to be the first based on records shareholders demanded from the company after Reuters reported last December that malicious code inserted into one of the company's software updates left U.S. government agencies and companies exposed.

Senate Bill Would Limit Acquisitions by Large Tech Companies

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced legislation that would make it easier for regulators to block large tech companies from buying up rivals or nascent competitors, the latest display of the bipartisan push in Congress to rein in the tech industry. The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act takes aim at large tech giants’ strategy of gaining dominance through buying other companies, which has become a growing concern of Washington lawmakers and regulators.

Google to Allow Third-Party Payments for In-App Purchases in South Korea

Google has announced changes it will make to its in-app payments options in South Korea — a significant step back for the tech giant as governments around the world seek to curb the control Google and Apple wield over their mobile ecosystems. In a blog post, Google says it will allow third-party payment options for in-app purchases to appear alongside its own Google Play billing system in Android apps.

U.K. Official Seeks to Shorten Time Frame for Social Media Criminal Sanctions

The U.K.’s recently appointed secretary of state for digital, Nadine Dorries, has signaled she wants to take a tougher line on social media platforms than her predecessor — telling a parliamentary committee she’s looking at speeding up the application of criminal sanctions for breaches of incoming U.K. online safety legislation. A provision to hold named individuals criminally accountable for failing to tackle illegal or harmful content spreading on their platforms was included in the draft Online Safety bill — but deferred for two years.

Apple Senior VP Calls iPhone Sideloading 'A Cyber Criminal's Best Friend'

“Sideloading is a cyber criminal’s best friend and requiring that on iPhone would be a gold rush for the malware industry,” according to Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi, who delivered a dramatic speech at Web Summit 2021 declaiming the security risks if Apple were required to let users sideload apps. Federighi, who oversees Apple’s iOS and macOS software divisions, was specifically protesting the European Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act, which, if passed, would require Apple to let users install apps outside of the iOS App Store.

U.S. Blacklists Israeli Spyware Company NSO Group

The United States added the Israeli spyware company NSO Group to its “entity list,” a federal blacklist prohibiting the company from receiving American technologies, after determining that its phone-hacking tools had been used by foreign governments to “maliciously target” government officials, activists, journalists, academics and embassy workers around the world. The move is a significant sanction against a company spotlighted in July in an investigation by the global Pegasus Project consortium, which includes The Washington Post and 16 other news organizations worldwide.

White House Orders Federal Agencies to Patch Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

The Biden administration issued a sweeping new order mandating that nearly all federal agencies patch hundreds of cybersecurity vulnerabilities that are considered major risks for damaging intrusions into government computer systems. The new requirement is one of the most wide-reaching cybersecurity mandates ever imposed on the federal government.

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