Senate to Vote on Two Bills Supported by Children's Online Safety Advocates

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will bring two bipartisan bills aimed at boosting online safety and privacy for kids to a vote after mounting pressure from advocates, Schumer’s office said. Children’s online safety advocates, including teens and parents of children who died after facing online harms, have been pushing the Senate to act on the bills for years — especially Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which has more than 60 co-sponsors in the Senate, giving it enough support to pass even with filibuster rules in place.

Under Harris, AI Companies Might Remain Mostly Free of Regulation

Over the past three years, Vice President Kamala Harris has taken a leading role inside the White House on artificial intelligence as the technology is taking off. Now, as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, a win for Ms. Harris could mean a continued relatively smooth runway for AI companies, which have enjoyed little U.S. regulation and the chance to shape White House and Congressional views on the technology.

Oracle Agrees to Settle Privacy Lawsuit for $115 Million

Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the database software and cloud computing company of invading people's privacy by collecting their personal information and selling it to third parties. The plaintiffs, who otherwise have no connection to Oracle, said the company violated federal and state privacy laws and California's constitution by creating unauthorized "digital dossiers" for hundreds of millions of people.

Appeals Court Judges Question California Law Designed to Protect Children Online

A federal appeals court seemed deeply skeptical of the constitutionality of a watershed California law that aims to expand safeguards for children online, probably foreshadowing another major defeat for state efforts to tackle the issue. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco heard arguments over a tech industry challenge to the California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), a bipartisan law passed in 2022.

Judge Rejects SEC's Effort to Oversee Corporate Cybersecurity Controls

A federal judge in a case stemming from one of the worst known cyberattacks has rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to oversee corporate cybersecurity controls, relieving companies worried they would be penalized by regulators after breaches by well-resourced hackers. In a closely watched case brought by the agency against 2020 hacking victim SolarWinds, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer granted most of the company’s motion to dismiss, holding that current laws give the SEC authority only over financial controls, not all internal controls.

FBI Got Access to Unreleased Technology to Unlock Trump Shooter's Phone

The FBI was given access to unreleased technology to access the phone of the man identified as the shooter of former President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the investigation. As the FBI struggled to gain access to the phone, they appealed directly to Cellebrite, a digital intelligence company founded in Israel that supplies technology to several U.S. federal agencies, according to the people, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the case.

Italy's Antitrust Agency Investigating Google Over User Data

Italy's antitrust agency said it had launched an investigation into online search giant Google and its parent company Alphabet over alleged unfair commercial practices involving users' personal data. The request for consent that Google sends to its users to connect its multiple services "could constitute misleading and aggressive commercial practice", the watchdog said.

Vance, Trump's Vice Presidential Pick, Favors Big-Tech Antitrust Enforcement

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's vice presidential pick J.D. Vance has openly praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, a sign that the agency's broad approach to antitrust enforcement could enjoy some level of support from a second Trump administration. Vance is one of several Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Florida U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, called "Khanservatives" for their agreement with the FTC chair that U.S. antitrust law has a broader purpose than keeping prices down for consumers.

British Regulators Investigating Competition Issues for Digital Wallets

British regulators said they were looking into the soaring use of digital wallets offered by Big Tech firms, including whether there are any competition, consumer protection or market integrity concerns. The Financial Conduct Authority and Payments Systems Regulator is seeking views on the benefits and risks, and will assess the impact digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, have on competition and choice of payment options at checkout, among other things.

Rite Aid Says Cybersecurity Breach Disclosed Names of Some Customers

Rite Aid disclosed customer data was accessed in a June cybersecurity breach. The drugstore operator said it determined the party acquired certain data associated with the purchase or attempted purchase of specific retail products, including purchaser name, address, date of birth and driver’s license number or other form of government-issued ID presented at purchase between June 6, 2017, and July 30, 2018.

FBI Says It 'Gained Access' to Phone Used by Shooter at Trump Rally

Just two days after the attempted assassination at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the FBI announced it “gained access” to the shooter’s phone. The bureau has not disclosed how it broke into the phone — or what has been found on it — but the speed with which it did so is significant, and security experts say it points to the increased efficacy of phone-hacking tools.

Meta Reduces Restrictions on Trump's Facebook, Instagram Accounts

Meta announced it’s rolling back heightened restrictions on former president Donald Trump’s social media accounts — an effort to give the Republican presidential contender more leeway to share content in a heated campaign season. The social media giant said it’s loosening the more rigorous consequences for Trump if he breaks their content rules, such as those that bar hate speech, incitement to violence and voter suppression.

Hackers Publish Data from Thousands of Disney's Internal Slack Channels

Data from Disney’s internal Slack workplace collaboration system have been leaked online, including discussions about ad campaigns, studio technology and interview candidates, according to files viewed by The Wall Street Journal. An anonymous hacking group that calls itself Nullbulge said in a blog post that it published data from thousands of Slack channels at the entertainment company, including computer code and details about unreleased projects.

Record Labels Seek Up to $2.6 Billion in Copyright Suit Against Verizon

Powerful record labels, including UMG Recordings, Warner Music, and Sony Music, filed a lawsuit accusing Verizon of intentionally ignoring its customers’ copyright violations for profit, reports Music Business Worldwide. The labels say they’ve sent “nearly 350,000 infringement notices” to Verizon since 2020, alleging that the company ignored people repeatedly cited for illegally sharing files because they pay more for faster, better internet service.

AT&T Says Cyberattack Exposed Phone Records on 'Nearly All' Customers

A cyberattack on the telecommunications giant AT&T exposed phone records from “nearly all” of its customers but did not compromise the content of calls or texts, the company said. The compromised data included files containing AT&T records of calls and texts from more than 100 million cellular customers, wireless network customers and landline customers from May 2022 through October 2022, and records from Jan. 2, 2023, for a small number of customers, the company said.

EU Subjects Adult Content Platform XNXX to Digital Services Act's Rules

The European Union has designated adult content platform XNXX as a very large online platform (VLOP) under its Digital Services Act (DSA) as it has on average 45 million monthly users in the EU, it said in a statement. The rules under the DSA require companies to share data with authorities and researchers, conduct risk management, and undergo external and independent auditing.

FTC Bars Anonymous Messaging App from Serving Young Users

The Federal Trade Commission barred an online service for the first time from serving users under the age of 18, saying the app had violated child privacy and consumer protection laws and had harmed children and teenagers. The FTC said it had reached a settlement with the maker of the anonymous messaging app NGL over privacy and consumer protection violations.

Meta Promises to Remove Facebook, Instagram Posts 'Attacking Zionists'

Meta Platforms said it would start taking down more posts that target "Zionists", where the term is used to refer to Jewish people and Israelis rather than representing supporters of the political movement. The Facebook and Instagram parent said in a blog post it would remove content "attacking 'Zionists' when it is not explicitly about the political movement" and uses antisemitic stereotypes or threatens harm through intimidation or violence directed against Jews or Israelis.

Judge Dismisses Developers' Claims of Unlawful Copying by GitHub Copilot

Claims by developers that GitHub Copilot was unlawfully copying their code have largely been dismissed, leaving the engineers for now with just two allegations remaining in their lawsuit against the code warehouse. The class-action suit against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI was filed in America in November 2022, with the plaintiffs claiming the Copilot coding assistant was trained on open source software hosted on GitHub and as such would suggest snippets from those public projects to other programmers without care for licenses – such as providing appropriate credit for the source – thus violating the original creators' intellectual property rights.

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.