FTC Says Former Amazon Employee Spied on Customers via Ring Doorbells

A former employee of Amazon.com's Ring doorbell camera unit spied for months on female customers in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing when it announced a $5.8 million settlement with the company over privacy violations. The FTC said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers' sensitive video data: "As a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transfer customers' sensitive video data."

Meta Says It Could Block Users in California from Sharing News Articles

Meta is threatening to block users in California from sharing news articles on its social media networks to protest a state legislative proposal that would force tech companies to pay publishers for their content. The social media giant said that if the California Journalism Preservation Act passes, the company would “be forced” to pull news from Facebook and Instagram in the state rather than agree to pay news outlets the journalism usage fee that the bill would require.

Meta Asks Court to Block FTC's Proceeding to Revise 2020 Privacy Settlement

Meta Platforms Inc. is asking a federal court to bar the Federal Trade Commission from moving forward with an agency proceeding to revise its 2020 privacy settlement. The FTC’s 2020 settlement with Meta, then known as Facebook, was approved by Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington and only the court can add provisions such as banning facial recognition, Meta said in court paper.

Amazon Agrees to $25 Million Settlement for Collecting Info from Children

Amazon agreed to pay a civil penalty of $25 million to settle federal charges that it kept sensitive information collected from children for years, including their precise locations and voice recordings, in violation of a children’s online privacy law. It was the latest legal action in an intensifying regulatory effort to require some of the world’s largest tech platforms to better safeguard their younger users.

Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Using ChatGPT to Draft Brief Riddled with Errors

A lawyer threw himself on the mercy of a Manhattan court, saying in an affidavit that he had used the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT to do his legal research — “a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.” The judge said in an order that he had been presented with “an unprecedented circumstance,” a legal submission replete with “bogus judicial decisions, with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.”

Commerce Secretary Says U.S. 'Won't Tolerate' China's Ban on Micron Chips

The United States "won't tolerate" China's effective ban on purchases of Micron Technology memory chips and is working closely with allies to address such "economic coercion," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. Raimondo told a news conference after a meeting of trade ministers in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks that the U.S. "firmly opposes" China's actions against Micron.

Android Screen Recording App Accused of Spying on Users

A cybersecurity firm says a popular Android screen recording app that racked up tens of thousands of downloads on Google’s app store subsequently began spying on its users, including by stealing microphone recordings and other documents from the user’s phone. Research by ESET found that the Android app, “iRecorder — Screen Recorder,” introduced the malicious code as an app update almost a year after it was first listed on Google Play.

Court Gives Final Approval to $50 Million Settlement Over Apple Keyboards

A U.S. federal court gave final approval to the $50 million class-action settlement Apple came to last July resolving claims the company knew about and concealed the unreliable nature of keyboards on MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro computers released between 2015 and 2019. Judge Edward Davila on Thursday called the settlement involving Apple’s infamous “butterfly” keyboards “fair, adequate and reasonable.”

China's Cyberspace Regulator Deletes 1.4 Million Social Media Posts

China's cyberspace regulator said 1.4 million social media posts have been deleted following a two-month probe into alleged misinformation, illegal profiteering, and impersonation of state officials, among other "pronounced problems". The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement it had closed 67,000 social media accounts and deleted hundreds of thousands of posts between March 10 and May 22 as part of a broader "rectification" campaign.

U.S. Urges Supreme Court to Decline Review of Song Lyric Case Against Google

The Biden administration's U.S. solicitor general said that the U.S. Supreme Court should not review a ruling won by Alphabet's Google LLC against song-lyric website Genius over Google's alleged copying of Genius' lyric transcriptions. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a court brief that the justices should let stand the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that Genius' case was preempted by federal copyright law.

Creators of ChatGPT Push for International Regulator of Artificial Intelligence

The leaders of OpenAI, the creator of viral chatbot ChatGPT, are calling for the regulation of “superintelligence” and artificial intelligence systems, suggesting an equivalent to the world’s nuclear watchdog would help reduce the “existential risk” posed by the technology. In a statement published on the company website this week, co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, as well as CEO Sam Altman, argued that an international regulator would eventually become necessary to “inspect systems, require audits, test for compliance with safety standards, (and) place restrictions on degrees of deployment and levels of security.”

U.S. Urges Supreme Court to Reject Apple's Appeal in Caltech Patent Case

The U.S. solicitor general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. stemming from their $1.1 billion trial loss to the California Institute of Technology in a patent infringement case. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct when it ruled last year that the companies could not seek to invalidate Caltech's patents in court after Apple failed to raise its invalidity arguments at the U.S. Patent Office.

Content Moderators for Facebook in Kenya Sue for Causing Depression, PTSD

In Kenya, content moderators are now part of a lawsuit against a contractor for Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and the social-media giant itself. The moderators accuse the company, California-based Sama, and Meta of worker exploitation and unfair termination. In legal filings, they say that reviewing graphic content has led to depression, PTSD and anxiety.

Microsoft, NSA Express Concerns Over Chinese Code Found in Guam

Around the time that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was examining the equipment recovered from the wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code that has been popping up in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States. The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan.

Shutterstock to Buy Giphy from Meta After U.K. Regulator Orders Sale

Shutterstock Inc. said it would buy animated-images platform Giphy Inc from Meta Platforms Inc. for $53 million in cash, months after the Facebook owner had agreed to divest the company on competition concerns. Britain's competition regulator last year ordered Meta to sell Giphy over fears that it could deny or limit competitors such as Snapchat Inc. and Twitter access to the target's content.

Surgeon General Warns About Social Media's Mental Health Impact on Teens

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a proponent of mental health awareness, has issued a warning that social media use is a main contributor to depression, anxiety and other problems in the nation's teenagers. The report calls attention to growing concerns about the effects of social media use on children and adolescent's mental health and urges policymakers and the companies that make the social media platforms to share with parents the burden of managing children's and adolescents’ social media use.

TikTok Files First Amendment Lawsuit to Block App's Ban in Montana

TikTok sued to block Montana from banning the popular video app, escalating its efforts to stop a prohibition that would be the first of its kind in the nation. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, the company said Montana’s legislation violated the First Amendment and parts of the U.S. Constitution that limit state powers.

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