Senator Asks FTC to Investigate Whether Facebook Ads Mislead Customers

The chair of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee asked a regulator to investigate whether Meta Platforms' Facebook misled its advertising customers and the public about the reach of its advertisements. In a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan seen by Reuters, Senator Maria Cantwell said "evidence suggests that Facebook may have deceived its advertising customers about its brand safety and advertising metrics" and "may have engaged in deceptive practices."

FTC Complaint Accuses Amazon of Misleading Ads in Search Results

Amazon doesn’t distinguish well enough between paid ads and organic search results, something that could trick consumers, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission. More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads, according to the complaint filed by the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor unions.

Appeals Court Allows Apple to Delay Changes to App Store Fees

A federal appeals court delivered a last-minute reprieve to Apple on, agreeing to the company’s request to delay a legal order requiring it to make policy changes to its App Store that could help app developers circumvent what they say are unfair fees. If the appeals court had not ruled, Apple would have had to start allowing companies to include links within their apps directing customers to outside websites where they can pay for those companies’ services or subscriptions.

Cryptocurrency Execs to Warn Congress About Pushing Activity Outside U.S.

Top executives from six cryptocurrency firms will tell Congress to tread lightly in imposing new rules on digital assets - or risk sending activity underground or outside the United States. Ahead of a hearing at the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, executives leading some of the world's biggest crypto companies indicated in prepared testimony they will generally support clearer rules.

Rohingya Refugees Sue Facebook for Not Stopping Hateful Posts in Myanmar

Rohingya refugees sued Facebook parent Meta Platforms for more than $150 billion over what they say was the company’s failure to stop hateful posts that incited violence against the Muslim ethnic group by Myanmar’s military rulers and their supporters. Lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in California saying Facebook’s arrival in Myanmar helped spread hate speech, misinformation and incitement to violence that “amounted to a substantial cause, and eventual perpetuation of, the Rohingya genocide.”

Google Sues Two People in Russia Allegedly Behind Glupteba Botnet

Google is suing two Russia-based individuals it alleges are behind a massive network of infected computers that have been used for crimes ranging from the theft of personal information to secretly mining bitcoin on the computers of unsuspecting hacking victims. The company also worked with Internet infrastructure companies to take down servers used by hackers to control the network, effectively rendering the “botnet” of infected devices unable to receive new commands from their controllers, at least temporarily.

Local Newspapers File Antitrust Suits Against Google, Facebook Over Ads

Newspapers all over the country have been quietly filing antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook for the past year, alleging the two firms monopolized the digital ad market for revenue that would otherwise go to local news. What started as a small-town effort to take a stand against Big Tech has turned into a national movement, with over 200 newspapers involved across dozens of states.

Alleged Inventor of Bitcoin Wins Verdict Worth About $50 Billion

Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, prevailed in a civil trial verdict against the family of a deceased business partner that claimed it was owed half of a cryptocurrency fortune worth tens of billions. A Florida jury found that Wright did not owe half of 1.1 million Bitcoin to the family of David Kleiman.

Court Lets Microsoft Seize 42 Websites from Chinese Hacking Group

Microsoft said that it had seized 42 websites from a Chinese hacking group in an effort to disrupt the group’s intelligence-gathering operations. The company said in a news release that a federal court in Virginia had granted Microsoft’s request to allow its Digital Crimes Unit to take over the U.S.-based websites, which were being run by a hacker group known as Nickel or APT15.

U.S. Cyber Command Takes Action Against Ransomware Groups

Cyber Command, the U.S. military's hacking unit, has taken offensive action to disrupt cybercriminal groups that have launched ransomware attacks on U.S. companies, a spokesperson for the command confirmed to CNN. The spokesperson declined to specify what actions the command had taken. But it's one of the first, unequivocal acknowledgements from Cyber Command since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May that the command has targeted criminal gangs that hold the computer systems of US businesses hostage.

  • Read the article: CNN

Pixel User Says Phone Hacked After Being Sent to Google for Repair

After game designer and author Jane McGonigal sent her Pixel 5a to Google for repair, someone allegedly took and hacked her device. This is at least the second report in as many weeks from someone claiming they sent a Google phone in for repair, only to have it used to leak their private data and photographs. McGonigal posted a detailed account of the situation on Twitter and advised other users not to send their phones in for repair with the company.

Twitter Mistakenly Suspended Accounts After Reports Against Researchers

Twitter said that it had mistakenly suspended accounts under a new policy following a flood of “coordinated and malicious reports” targeting anti-extremism researchers and journalists first reported by The Washington Post. The company said it had corrected the errors and launched an internal review to ensure that its new rule — which allows someone whose photo or video was tweeted without their consent to request its removal — was “used as intended.”

Apple Says iPhones Used by U.S. Diplomats Hacked by NSO's Spyware

Apple alerted 11 U.S. diplomats that their iPhones had been hacked in recent months by spyware from NSO Group, an Israel-based company that helps government clients in dozens of countries secretly steal files, eavesdrop on conversations and track the movements of its targets, according to people familiar with the notifications. The news, the first confirmed cases of Pegasus being used to target American officials, comes a month after U.S. officials blacklisted the NSO Group amid allegations that its foreign government clients had enabled hacking against embassy employees, political activists, human rights workers and others.

Two Men Charged in Music Royalty Scam Collecting $20M from YouTube

Two men have been charged with allegedly running a years-long music royalty scam, in which they collected more than $20 million in payments from YouTube by falsely claiming to hold the rights to 50,000 Spanish-language songs. Prosecutors say Jose “Chanel” Teran, 36, of Scottsdale, Ariz. and Webster “Yenddi” Batista, 38, of Doral, Fla. claimed their company, MediaMuv Inc., controlled the rights to a large back catalog of music.

TSA Issues Cybersecurity Mandates for 'Higher-Risk' Transit Systems

The federal government imposed two cybersecurity mandates on "higher-risk'' railroad and rail transit systems, despite industry efforts to beat back regulations. The directives, published by the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration, expand on pipeline regulations imposed earlier this year that are designed to shore up the nation's critical infrastructure, following a number of ransomware attacks.

White House to Unveil Group Working on Human Rights Tech Abuses

The White House will unveil a group of countries that have pledged to work together to curb exports of technology that can be used by bad actors and repressive governments to violate human rights, senior administration officials said. The announcement, which will be made as part of U.S. President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy, is aimed at addressing "the misuse of certain dual-use technologies that can lead to human rights abuses" and ensuring "critical and emerging technologies work for and not against democratic societies," the officials told reporters in a briefing call.

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.