More than 90 percent of companies will be using IoT technologies within two years, said a TIA Survey Wednesday. Some 48 percent of U.S. businesses are using IoT solutions today, and another 43 percent expect to deploy them within 24 months, it said. IoT will become a mainstream part of business by 2019, said TIA, and survey findings show that companies expect 44 percent of IT budgets in 2020 to be dedicated to IoT development and maintenance. A key theme in survey findings: companies have accepted the value of data to their business, with 72 percent planning to use IoT to capture data on product feature usage, said the survey.

Electronic health record company Practice Fusion settled FTC charges that it misled consumers into providing doctor reviews without telling them such feedback would be publicly posted on the internet, disclosing sensitive personal and medical information, the commission said in news release Wednesday. The commission voted 3-0 to issue an administrative complaint and accept the consent agreement, which will be published soon in the Federal Register and be open for public comment through July 8. “Companies that collect personal health information must be clear about how they will use it -- especially before posting such information publicly on the Internet," said FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich in a statement. The settlement will require the cloud-based EHR company to get a patient's "affirmative consent" and "clearly and conspicuously disclose" that such information would be publicly available, the release said. The agreement also bars the company from making deceptive privacy or confidentiality statements about collected patient data. FTC said Practice Fusion sought to launch a public healthcare provider directory in 2013 and, during the prior year, solicited feedback through a "satisfaction survey" from patients of providers using the company's EHR service. Patients believed such feedback would be shared only with their providers and many included personal data, such as their full name, phone number and medical inquiries, the release said. For example, one patient asked about a Xanax prescription and dosage, while another inquiry related to the mental state of the consumer's daughter and provided a phone number, the complaint said. Practice Fusion said in a blog post Wednesday the consent agreement "does not represent an admission of wrongdoing," doesn't impose monetary damages nor allege its current actions are "problematic."

The FTC said it filed charges against Florida-based companies Tachht and Teqqi, and owners Colby Fox and Christopher Reinhold, claiming the companies illegally spammed consumers with emails that pitched “bogus” weight-loss products by falsely claiming endorsements by Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. The FTC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Tampa alleging violations of FTC Act sections 5 and 12, along with the 2003 Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act. Tachht and Teqqi sent the emails via hacked email accounts so it would appear to be sent by the consumer's family members, friends and other contacts, the FTC said. Links in the emails promoted “unproven” weight-loss products like Original Pure Forskolin and Original White Kidney Bean, the FTC said. “These defendants used a variety of deceptive tactics to sell their bogus diet pills, said FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich in a Monday news release. Tachht and Teqqi didn't comment.

The Supreme Court declined Monday to grant Google's petition for a writ of certiorari seeking a review of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 2015 decision that allowed to proceed a class-action lawsuit by California advertisers who used Google's AdWords ad placement service. The advertisers, who used AdWords between 2004 and 2008, are seeking refunds from Google because they believe the company misled them by placing their ads on parked domain names and other undesirable pages along with desired placements next to relevant Google search pages. The 9th Circuit reversed a 2012 San Jose U.S. District Court ruling that denied the advertisers class-action status, saying the advertisers were all seeking restitution based on the same type of claimed deception. The Supreme Court denied certiorari without comment. Google didn't comment.

Digital matching firms like Uber provide potential benefits to consumers, workers and the economy, said a Commerce Department issue brief released Friday. The report by the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) defines digital matching firms as “entities that provide online platforms (or marketplaces) that enable the matching of service providers with customers,” with Uber and Airbnb as examples. The firms typically rely on user-based rating systems for quality control, and provide flexible hours to workers, who bring their own tools to the job, the report said. “Relatively little economic research on digital matching firms exists, and teasing out data about the size and value of these firms is difficult.” But studies by the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, MBO Partners and others “suggest that digital matching firms are quickly growing in size, yet remain a relatively small part of the greater U.S. economy,” it said. Potential benefits of the firms include: (1) lower prices for consumers from reduced transaction and overhead costs; (2) flexible employment schedules and extra income for workers; (3) the ability to take advantage of underutilized assets, such as houses that are vacant most of the year; (4) greater economic consumption; (5) an enhanced consumer experience; and (6) increased trust between consumers and individual service providers. Possible downsides include: (1) potential income instability since demand and service prices may vary; (2) fewer job benefits and protections that might come with traditional employment; (3) no training for service providers because they’re not technically employees; (4) a requirement that workers buy and maintain their own assets, such as a car for Uber; (5) consumer privacy and security are in firms’ hands; and (6) Internet and smartphone access is usually required. The report noted it may take time to determine how to fit digital matching firms into the regulatory framework, with many unsettled issues including worker classification, taxation and compliance, accessibility for people with disabilities, and consumer safety and service provider certification.

The Trustworthy Accountability Group said it plans to provide best practices and an information-sharing infrastructure to help the advertising industry better fight malware. "Later this year, TAG plans to unveil the results of that work and begin to offer companies a TAG anti-malware seal if they comply with those standards," the group said in a Wednesday blog post, after a malware summit in New York City. The group, formed two years ago by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Interactive Advertising Bureau to tackle malicious software, among other problems, said the summit's discussions were confidential but featured several industry leaders, including AppNexus co-founder Brian O'Kelley and The Media Trust CEO Chris Olson. Industry leaders also met with representatives from the departments of Homeland Security and Justice and the FBI.

ICANN said it implemented amendments to its domain name Transfer Policy and the Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP). Amendments to both policies take effect Dec. 1, ICANN said in a Wednesday news release. The Transfer Policy amendments in part require domain registrars to deny inter-registrar domain transfer requests if the registrar imposed a 60-day transfer lock after a change in the domain’s registrant and the registrant didn’t opt out of the lock. The amendments also require a registrar to deny an inter-registrar domain transfer if a Uniform Rapid Suspension proceeding is occurring. The amendments also clarified ICANN’s definition of what constitutes a “material” change in domain registrant and modified the required information to be included in registrant change notifications. The TDRP amendments in part require registrars to file TDRP complaints with ICANN-approved dispute resolution providers rather than directing them to domain registries. The amendments require TDRP providers to publish TDRP decisions and expand the statute of limitations for filing a TDRP complaint to 12 months. The amendments also require a domain to be transferred back to the registrar of record if a dispute resolution panel finds that an invalid transfer occurred.

IoT products will overtake mobile phones as the largest category of connected devices by 2018, Ericsson said in a Wednesday report. Ericsson predicts shipments of IoT connected devices will grow 23 percent annually through 2021, the report said. Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, close to 16 billion will be IoT devices, it said. Western Europe will lead the way in adding IoT connections, it said. The number of IoT devices in Western Europe will increase 400 percent by 2021, it said: "IoT is now accelerating as device costs fall and innovative applications emerge. From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today."

Login user data stolen from social networking site Myspace was made available in an online hacker forum, parent company Time said in a news release Tuesday. The company said the social networking site's technical security team found out about the breach "shortly before the Memorial Day weekend," but it didn't indicate how many users were affected. The breach was attributed to Russian cyberhacker "Peace," who has links to attacks on LinkedIn and Tumblr, a Myspace blog post said. Time said the stolen data "is limited to a portion of Myspace usernames, passwords and email addresses, from the old Myspace platform" before June 11, 2013, when it was relaunched with stronger account security measures. But Time said none of its other subscriber information or media assets were compromised. It said Myspace is now notifying all affected users, has invalidated their passwords, is monitoring for suspicious activity and is working with law enforcement officials on the investigation.

The European Parliament voted 542-51 Thursday to recommend the European Commission establish a task force to monitor bitcoin and other virtual currencies in a bid to prevent their use for money laundering and financial terrorism. The proposal, drafted by EP Member Jakob von Weizsäcker, would allow the task force to make legislative recommendations for virtual currency. The task force should focus on “precautionary monitoring rather than pre-emptive regulation,” von Weizsäcker said in an EP news release. “But IT innovations can spread very rapidly and become systemic. That's why we call on the Commission to establish a taskforce to actively monitor how the technology evolves and to make timely proposals for specific regulation if, and when, the need arises.” In the U.S., a move is afoot to harmonize across states and federal agencies rules for virtual currencies (see 1602230071).