President Barack Obama won't pardon former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for disclosing intelligence information, the White House said in a statement Tuesday in response to a "We the People" petition to the White House to pardon Snowden. “Mr. Snowden's dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it,” said Lisa Monaco, the president's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, in the statement. Snowden should have challenged the NSA’s activities, spoken out, engaged in a constructive act of protest, and “accept[ed] the consequences of his actions,” Monaco said. “He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers -- not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime,” she said. The U.S. faces “grave security threats like terrorism, cyber-attacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address,” Monaco said. Balancing security and civil liberties deserves robust debate by those willing to engage in it in the U.S., she said.

Current statutes on when law enforcement officials can access consumers’ electronic communications are more than 30 years old and failed to keep pace with developments in commerce and technology, said a white paper released Tuesday from Bancroft law firm partners Viet Dinh and Jeffrey Harris. The paper identifies what they see as several deficiencies in the current statutory framework and analyzes several recent legislative proposals like the Email Privacy Act and the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad (Leads) Act, and offers suggestions on how to improve the legislation.

Many wearable and mobile health app users don’t feel their data is sufficiently secured by manufacturers, according to a survey by Healthline, a health information and technology provider, a news release said. The survey, which polled 3,679 Healthline.com readers June 17-24, found 25 percent of respondents don’t believe their personal health data is secure on a Fitbit or a health tracking app, the release said. About half of respondents, 45 percent, said they were concerned hackers may try to steal their personal health data from their wearable, it said. Lingering and noticeable concerns about protection of personal health information “should be a warning bell for manufacturers to ensure that the security of this new technology is a top priority,” said Healthline CEO Dean Stephens. The survey also found that despite security concerns, consumers “want the health and fitness support that wearable devices provide,” the release said. The average consumer uses two to four health or fitness apps, with 43 percent of respondents saying they stop using an app within six months of using it, the release said.

Medium, the social networking site created by two of the founders of Twitter, updated its rules to “prohibit public shaming, revenge porn, and posting private or confidential information about others in order to harass,” wrote Medium Head of Legal Sarah Agudo in a message to users Monday. Every online social platform has to balance fostering free expression and creating a place where “everyone is free to be who they are,” the post said. Surprising and controversial views are still encouraged on the site to maintain “the kind of impassioned engagement we want here,” Agudo said. But Medium has “decided to draw the line” at allowing speech that “shuts down more expression than it opens up, by causing silence, retreat, isolation, or intimidation.” The new rules aren't about just preventing harassment, but also about “fostering a place we’re all proud of and want to come to every day to see what’s going on,” Agudo said.

The European Commission should “investigate tactics reportedly used by Apple to drive out ‘freemium’ (commercial sponsored) streaming music and unfairly dominate the streaming music business,” Consumer Watchdog said in a letter to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a news release said. Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court and Privacy Project Director John Simpson sent a similar letter to the FTC and Justice Department last week (see 1507220066) and asked the agencies to investigate the company for possible antitrust violations. “Apple is utilizing its market power in much the way the company did in setting e-book prices,” the letters said.

The Internet Association plans its first policy conference Oct. 12 in Menlo Park, California, a news release said Monday. Confirmed speakers include Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sepulveda and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, the release said.

There was a delay in notifying Pandora customers to changes in its privacy policy that were effective June 30 (see 1507220018), a spokesman told us Friday. Pandora hadn't updated the policy since December 2013 and there was no requirement that customers be notified before changes took place, he said. The company intended to notify users the day before or the day the changes took place, but due to the high number of Pandora users, emails alerting them to the changes were phased in over the course of a couple of weeks, he said.

Yahoo will include language in job postings indicating the company prefers engineering candidates with accessibility experience, Accessible Media Director Larry Goldberg wrote in a blog post Thursday. A number of Yahoo’s tech industry partners also will include that preference in job postings, it said. “This is a huge step toward ensuring that products across the industry are designed with every individual in mind,” Goldberg said. “While making all tech products accessible is not mandated by law, Yahoo and our peers believe that it is simply the right thing to do,” he said. “We want to make sure that our users have equal access to the services we provide, whether or not they’re disabled.”

Microsoft released a new reporting Web page enabling individuals to request the removal of nonconsensual pornography or revenge porn images and videos globally from Bing search results, as well as from content shared on Microsoft OneDrive or Xbox Live, Chief Online Safety Officer Jacqueline Beauchere said in a blog post Wednesday. “Removing links in search results to content hosted elsewhere online doesn’t actually remove the content from the Internet,” she said. “Victims still need stronger protections across the Web and around the world,” she said, because revenge porn can damage a person’s relationships, career, social activities, and in severe cases lead to suicide. “Microsoft remains committed to continuing to work with leaders and experts worldwide on this evolving subject, and we expect to learn a great deal as the process moves forward,” Beauchere said. “Our hope is that by helping to address requests and to remove these extremely personal photos and videos from our services, we can better support victims as they work to re-claim their privacy, and help to push just a little further in the fight against this despicable practice.” The reporting Web page is in English. Microsoft will make the site available in other languages in the coming weeks, Beauchere said.

Netflix's TV app is getting its first major upgrade in two years with new functionality, it said Wednesday in a blog post. Video playback is being linked with content selection so when a viewer selects a title, it will start or resume playing while briefly superimposing information about the program on the screen. That new feature began rollout Wednesday and is expected to be worldwide in days, the company said.