About 15 million domain names were added to the Internet in Q4, raising the total number of registered domain names globally to 314 million, Verisign said in a report. Worldwide domain name registrations in Q4 grew by almost 26 million, a 9 percent increase over the same period in 2014, Verisign said. There were a combined 139.8 million .com and .net domain names at the end of Q4, up 6.3 percent from 2014, Verisign said. The company’s average daily Domain Name System query load in Q4 increased by 11.9 percent from 2014 to 123 billion queries.

ICANN is “evaluating next steps and our procedural options” after U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week granted DotConnectAfrica Trust’s request for a preliminary injunction halting ICANN's delegation of the .africa top-level domain to the ZA Central Registry, an ICANN spokesman said Friday. Judge Gary Klausner said an injunction was needed because “the evidence suggests that ICANN intended to deny DCA's application based on pretext.” Klausner also questioned the enforceability of provisions in the waiver DCA Trust agreed to when it applied to be the .africa registry that waived DCA Trust's right to sue ICANN over the .africa delegation decision (see 1604140056).

U.S. District Court in Los Angeles granted DotConnectAfrica Trust's request for a preliminary injunction halting ICANN's delegation of the .africa top-level domain to the ZA Central Registry. DCA Trust sought the preliminary injunction amid its ongoing lawsuit against ICANN, which seeks to require ICANN to follow the terms of independent review process (IRP) proceedings that found ICANN mishandled DCA's 2013 challenge to the nonprofit's .africa delegation decision. DCA Trust also wants ICANN to reconsider the registry's application to be the .africa registry (see 1603070062 and 1603280050). “The evidence suggests that ICANN intended to deny DCA's application based on pretext,” Judge Gary Klausner said in his ruling: ICANN hasn't “introduced any controverting facts. As such, the Court finds serious questions regarding the enforceability of” provisions of a waiver that DCA Trust agreed to when it applied to be the .africa registry that waived DCA Trust's right to sue ICANN over the .africa delegation decision. Evidence “presents serious questions” about whether ICANN followed the IRP decisions in favor of DCA Trust, including “whether DCA's application should have proceeded to the delegation stage” after the IRP decision, Klausner said. DCA “will likely suffer irreparable harm” if ICANN proceeds with the .africa delegation before the lawsuit is concluded, Klausner said. ICANN didn't comment.

Panasonic’s Aupeo GmbH subsidiary is collaborating with Triton Digital at the Worldwide Radio Summit in Hollywood, California, using Triton’s Tap OnDemand advertising program to insert targeted ads into personalized audio messages delivered through the Panasonic OneConnect platform. The Panasonic-Triton collaboration lets manufacturers communicate brand messages, service promotions and other customized content directly to consumers on the road, said Panasonic. The OneConnect platform can communicate the vehicle’s operational status in an audio format that makes it easy for the driver to grasp the importance of a vehicle indicator or status light, the company said. The platform can also enable follow-up actions, such as dialing a phone number, or setting a destination or reminder, and the driver can act on the notifications with a click or simple voice command, it said. OneConnect also can trigger messages based on location, vehicle status or type, Panasonic said. A message could be played to all drivers with a specific software version to initiate an update or to all vehicles within 50 miles of a dealer that have an active check engine light to offer a service discount, the company said. OneConnect reports successful message playback and follow-through action metrics, it said.

Uber said it received 415 state and federal law enforcement requests for information for criminal investigations during the second half of 2015, but it hasn't gotten a national security letter or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order request. Uber released its first-ever transparency report Tuesday, showing the scope of information it has released to law enforcement agencies and state and local regulators. Uber said it provided at least some data for 85 percent of the law enforcement requests, of which the majority were from state authorities. "A large number of the law enforcement requests we receive are related to fraud investigations or the use of stolen credit cards," the company said. "Since we move people from A to B, we also respond to requests about rider or driver safety and ensure that law enforcement officers get the information they need through the appropriate legal channels in a timely fashion." Uber also said it responded to 33 requests from state and local regulatory agencies such as in California on information about trips, trip requests, pickup and drop-off areas, fares, vehicles, and drivers in their jurisdictions for a given time period and electronic trip receipts. The requests involved trip data for nearly 12 million riders and nearly 600,000 drivers. Plus, the company responded to 34 requests from airport authorities that regulate transportation services. With limited exceptions, Uber said it requires a "valid and sufficient legal process" from government before disclosing information about customers and asks for"narrowly tailored" requests if they are "overly broad, vague or unreasonable requests."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court ruling tossing out a shareholder complaint spearheaded by the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System and State-Boston Retirement System alleging federal securities law violations by Netflix. In a memorandum (in Pacer) Monday, a 9th Circuit three-judge panel said the plaintiffs didn't adequately allege any Netflix omissions or statements during the class period -- Oct. 20, 2010, to Oct. 24, 2011 -- that falsely talked up the viability or profitability of its streaming service. "Netflix repeatedly referenced the financial risk in getting its online-streaming business off the ground," and made clear to investors that profit margins could take a hit, the memorandum said. The 9th Circuit also upheld the District Court's 2013 decision (see 1308220072) to deny the plaintiffs' motion to file an amended complaint after their earlier complaint was dismissed with prejudice, saying the District Court was right in holding the amended complaint doesn't state an actionable claim and further amendment "would prove futile." Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment.

ICANN said it and Verisign began a 90-day “parallel testing” period last week to verify that data contained in the Root Zone Management System-produced (RZMS) root zone file will remain reliable after the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition is completed. ICANN and Verisign proposed parallel testing of the root zone file as part of their August proposal to NTIA on root zone management. Parallel testing is meant to determine whether the production RZMS process and a testing version of the process that doesn’t include NTIA’s authorization step will produce identical versions of the root zone file, ICANN said Friday. A successful test shouldn’t include any “unexplained differences” in the two root zone file versions, ICANN said in a news release. Verisign will publish daily comparison reports of the two root zone files throughout the 90-day testing period, while ICANN will produce a monthly report on the test results, ICANN said. All Verisign reports since the testing period’s start April 6 showed no differences in the parallel root zone file versions, the company said.

Millions of Netflix subscribers were tipped off last week to a $2 per month bump in standard streaming subscriptions on tap for next month, as stories swirled around media sites and social media about the hike to $9.99 per month. Subscribers didn’t get an official word from Netflix, and a few were miffed at the streaming video service for not sending notice directly, although the increase shouldn’t be a surprise. Netflix emailed subscribers in May 2014 (see 1405120065) alerting them they were grandfathered in at $7.99 but would face a price hike in two years. At the time, the new subscriber rate was $8.99 per month, which went up to $9.99 last October. Wedbush Securities anticipates some falloff due to the increase, analyst Michael Pachter emailed us. “Most subscribers use the service and perceive sufficient value to remain subscribers after the price increase.” Wedbush estimates 600,000-750,000 subscribers don't use the service “but still pay out of inertia.” It expects those subscribers to “gradually defect when the price goes up, particularly if the company notifies them of the increase.” Pachter said new subscribers have paid $9.99 since October, “and it appears to be dampening new subscriber growth already.” Business Insider reported that Netflix will raise prices on roughly 17 million of its standard accounts next month and said “most people have no idea.” It cited a JPMorgan survey saying 80 percent of Netflix subscribers grandfathered in at $7.99 didn’t know the increase was to go into effect in May. A Netflix spokeswoman told us Friday that grandfathered subscribers will have the choice of continuing at $7.99 on the standard-definition plan or continuing on HD at $9.99 per month. The two-year holding price was a "thank you" to members, she said. Later this month, members in the U.K. will begin to be "ungrandfathered," she said, and beginning in May, the price hike is rolling out elsewhere based on member billing periods. Members affected by the price increase "will be clearly notified by email and within the service, so that they have time to decide which plan/price point works best for them," she said.

Microsoft sees privacy “as a fundamental human right” and is committed to giving customers “the information and controls they need to make the choices that are right for them about how data is collected and used,” Chief Privacy Officer Brandon Lynch said in a Thursday blog post. A website directed at consumers linked to in the blog post included a statement from CEO Satya Nadella and privacy pledges. They include transparency, security, "strong legal protections," "no content-based targeting" and consumer control. “People today keep more information on their phones than they previously kept in their entire house,” Lynch said. “And most of this, often sensitive information, is connected to the cloud. In an era of rapidly evolving and increasingly personal technology, we know that people won’t use technology they don’t trust. Technology advances, but timeless values, like privacy, must also endure.” Microsoft “in the months ahead” plans to introduce four new privacy “initiatives,” Lynch said. It promises, he said: (1) a “comprehensive repository” of information and training resources “designed to help privacy, legal and compliance professionals understand, achieve and verify the compliance requirements of their organization’s cloud deployments”; (2) “roundtable events” around the world to discuss “the urgent compliance issues,” including data security, and “personal information privacy” for consumers, employees and students; (3) new investments in training programs “that focus on the skills and knowledge compliance professionals need to oversee safe, secure and compliant cloud deployments”; and (4) “regular updates” on Microsoft efforts “to strengthen the privacy, security and compliance protections of the Microsoft cloud.” Lynch didn’t mention the recent Apple-FBI legal battle over access to encrypted data on an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, California, terror attacks (see 1603290059).

The Global Market Development Center (GMDC), a trade association for health, beauty and wellness retailers, will recommend the ZigBee 3.0 standard and its retail components as part of a liaison agreement between GMDC and the ZigBee Alliance, said the groups Thursday. GMDC members can leverage ZigBee 3.0 in their supply chains and across systems controlling the in-store experience to cut costs and improve product quality, tracking, marketing and merchandising, said GMDC CEO Patrick Spear. ZigBee 3.0 also will give retailers new ways to increase customer loyalty by implementing personal shopping assistants and gateways, intelligent shopping carts, asset tracking systems and energy management solutions, merchandising and marketing systems and pharmacy services on one network, said the trade groups. Also via ZigBee 3.0, retailers can gather information about customer shopping behavior, track inventory and monitor temperature and humidity from the warehouse to stores, they said. The ZigBee 3.0 standard includes device definitions specific to retail service applications along with definitions for sensor and actuator applications that allow retailers to build integrated custom solutions using standard components, they said.