The global average Internet connection speed increased 17 percent year-over-year, according to a State of the Internet Report for the second quarter of 2015 by Akamai Technologies, which was released Wednesday. Other findings include that Washington, D.C., “unseated Delaware in the highest average and peak connection speeds,” and that Gabon, Cameroon, Nepal and Iraq experience significant Internet disruptions, an Akamai news release said. “We continued to see healthy increases in key connection speed metrics, particularly on a year-over-year basis,” said David Belson, editor of the report. “The improvement in connection speeds is vital as more content, not the least of which is video at increasingly higher levels of quality, is being delivered over the Internet,” Belson said. “Ongoing progress and innovation in these areas, as evidenced in the report, will play a key role in helping address consumer demand for access to content where and when they want it,” he said.

ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) has decided to “continue advancing” its IANA transition proposal “as planned, aiming to make as much progress as possible” by the time ICANN stakeholders meet in Dublin Oct. 18-22, ICG leaders said Tuesday in a blog post. ICG found that a majority of public comments submitted through Sept. 8 (see 1509090053) support the proposal, though “in some cases that support was qualified by suggestions, questions, and criticism that the ICG is working hard to synthesize and address as appropriate,” the group's leaders said. ICG's decision to adhere to its planned timeline “as much as possible without sacrificing quality for speed is notable in light of indications” that the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN's Accountability's (CCWG-Accountability) work on its proposal for changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms is likely to be delayed, ICG leaders said. The group said it's “closely following the work of [CCWG-Accountability] and expects to have more clarity about the trajectory of [its] work after that group meets at the end of this week.”

Apple is allowing the new app Hinder, which allows users to browse where their elected officials stand on women's rights issues like birth control, abortion and sex education, to be included in its app store, a group said. Apple’s decision to make the app available was announced in a news release Wednesday by UltraViolet, which had a petition signed by more than 30,000 people that asked Apple make the app available. Direct tweets from nearly 1,000 individuals asking for the app to be available also helped convince Apple to change its mind in less than 24 hours, the release said.

A petition asks Google's YouTube to remove “shock” videos, saying that they are a form of cyberbullying. Videos iPetitions is asking YouTube to delete from the site feature images and video of people with visible differences to “exploit, belittle and dehumanise” the individuals for entertainment purposes. “These videos are not informing or educating, they are exploiting and bullying and dehumanising,” the petition said. “Is YouTube no more than a modern-day Victorian freak show?” Google didn't comment directly on the petition. It directed us to their flagging system and policies on bullying.

The copyright holders of the Dallas Buyers Club are suing an array of Comcast broadband customers for allegedly pirating the film via the Popcorn Time software program. The suit, filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, asks for a permanent injunction stopping the John Doe defendants from using the Internet to distribute the film or make it available for distribution, as well as a permanent injunction enjoining them from using any peer-to-peer software like Popcorn Time to download or distribute content without a license, and unspecified financial damages. Dallas Buyers Club LLC said it plans to use initial discovery to subpoena Comcast for the identities of each of the Oregon defendants, based on their IP addresses. Comcast isn't a defendant in the suit and declined to comment.

An audit of the 23 presidential candidates’ websites by the Online Trust Alliance found that 74 percent failed to guard voters’ privacy and security, an OTA news release said Tuesday. Twenty-six percent passed and "performed so admirably that they achieved ‘Honor Roll’ status,” it said. “There was no middle ground.” Presidential candidates who made the honor roll include Republicans Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum, as well as Scott Walker, who left the race Monday. Democratic candidates Lincoln Chafee and Martin O’Malley also made the honor roll. The sites that failed scored an F in privacy practices, it said, with some linking to “nonexistent or inadequate privacy policy disclosures,” while others failed because they reserved the “right to liberally share or sell their donors and site visitors’ personally identifiable information (PII), including addresses, phone numbers, employers and even passport numbers, with unaffiliated third parties that the candidates deem to be like-minded organizations,” said OTA. “Although political websites may not be beholden to the same security and privacy standards as industry, our findings clearly reveal that these campaigns’ data practices are out of alignment with consumer expectations and Federal Trade Commission guidelines for the business community," said OTA Executive Director Craig Spiezle. On a positive note, all candidates had “excellent consumer protection scores,” it said. But Spiezle said that in an era of “mounting distrust of data and privacy practices, candidates must move beyond a compliance mindset and embrace responsible data stewardship” because consumers not only pay with their credit card, but also with “giving away their PII.” Friday at 1 p.m. EDT, OTA will host a webinar to discuss further the findings of the audit with Future of Privacy Forum Executive Director Jules Polonetsky and TRUSTe CEO Chris Babel.

The FTC “needs to analyze and address how contemporary online lead generation embodies a panoply of applications and tactics to acquire, use, and often share or sell a person’s personal data,” said the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. Public Interest Research Group in comments submitted Friday to the FTC ahead of the agency’s Oct. 30 workshop on the topic (see 1507220053). Online lead generation “incorporates the use of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, search engines, mobile phones, apps, geo-location, native advertising, email, sentiment mining, data-driven audience buying (programmatic), user ‘scoring’ methods, attribution analysis for measurement, and a network of data brokers providing instantaneous identity and other sensitive information,” they said. CDD and U.S. PIRG urged the FTC to “protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and privacy-threatening practices that companies regularly use for online lead generation.”

Many people are “betting on television over the Internet, and we’re betting on television over the Internet,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York when asked about his company’s ambitions in over-the-top video delivery. “We think the premium channels -- Starz being one of only a few -- are really well positioned to thrive in that changing landscape,” Albrecht said. “We see more opportunities than we see challenges.” But it’s unlikely Starz would introduce a Netflix-style service anytime soon, he said. “I don’t really see in any near future that I can foresee a direct-to-consumer product” from Starz, he said. “To just go out and put together a marketing plan to start to sell a stand-alone video service” is very expensive, he said. “Netflix built it on the back of their DVD business, and I don’t know what would have happened had they just gone out and licensed a ton of rights” to launch a stand-alone OTT service cold, he said.

Marketers of a software app for mobile devices and PCs that claimed the Ultimeyes video game app would improve a user’s vision agreed to stop making deceptive claims about the app, in a settlement with the FTC, the agency said in a news release Thursday. Carrot Neurotechnology and co-owners “also agreed to disgorge $150,000,” the release said. Health-related apps can be beneficial, “but the FTC will not hesitate to act when health-related claims are not based on sound science,” said Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich. Ads for the app, which cost between $5.99 and $9.99, said using the app would “Turn Back The Clock On Your Vision,” would improve vision for uses like sports, reading and driving, and would reduce a need for glasses and contact lenses, the release said. Ads claimed scientific research proved the success of the app, but failed to mention that the app's creator was among those who did the studies, it said. “If you’re looking for health-related apps -- or other products or services -- keep in mind that some companies may overstate claims in their advertising,” FTC Consumer Education Specialist Aditi Jhaveri wrote in a blog post on the settlement Thursday. The commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and accept the proposed consent order was unanimous, the release said. Comments are due Oct. 19, then the commission will decide whether to make the consent order final.

The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said it closed its investigation into Expedia's proposed buy of rival online travel company Orbitz, effectively giving regulatory approval to the deal. Expedia announced the $1.3 billion merger in February, prompting opposition from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and Consumer Watchdog over concerns the deal would result in an effective duopoly with Priceline. Several members of Congress also urged heightened scrutiny of the deal (see 1508100060). Justice “concluded that Expedia's acquisition of Orbitz is not likely to substantially lessen competition or harm US consumers," said Assistant Attorney General-Antitrust Division Bill Baer in a statement Wednesday. Justice “uncovered no evidence in our investigation that the merger is likely to result in new charges being imposed directly on consumers for using Expedia or Orbitz.” The department also “found that Orbitz is only a small source of bookings for most of these companies and thus has had no impact in recent years on the commissions Expedia charges,” Baer said. “In addition, beyond Expedia and Orbitz, travel service providers have alternative ways to attract customers and obtain bookings, including Expedia’s largest online travel agent rival, Priceline.” The investigation's evidence also “suggests that the online travel business is rapidly evolving,” including the introduction of TripAdvisor's Instant Booking service and Google's Hotel and Flight Finder, Baer said. AH&LA said it believes Justice's decision in Expedia/Orbitz “will hurt consumers and small business owners, and remove choice from the marketplace.” The deal “will result in significant negative consequences for consumers and also the large number of our members who are small businesses and independent hotels. It could lead to increased distribution costs for independent hotel owners who risk seeing booking commissions rise by double digits,” AH&LA said. Consumer Watchdog is also " " by Justice's Expedia/Orbitz decision, said Director-Privacy Project John Simpson in an email. "I think that is a huge threat to consumers."