The FTC is sending more than $700,000 in refunds to small-business owners “deceived by a robocall scheme,” the agency said Tuesday. The agency alleged Pointbreak Media, Modern Spotlight, National Business Listings and Modern Source Media claimed “to be acting on Google’s behalf, and threatened [the small-business owners] that Google would label their businesses ‘permanently closed’ unless they spoke with a ‘Google specialist.’” The defendants requested $300-$700 fees to verify listings, the agency alleged. The FTC is sending refunds to “4,467 small business owners with an average refund amount of $158.32,” the agency said. An attorney for the defendants didn’t comment.

Some 54% of Americans opted for virtual medical visits during the coronavirus pandemic, and 70% plan to continue them, but privacy and data protection are major concerns, said a Tuesday report from CynergisTek. Telehealth was the preferred alternative to in-person visits and elective care during the pandemic, but half of survey respondents said they would limit use if a telehealth data breach occurred. “Major vulnerabilities are emerging around privacy and security standards for video conferencing and messaging apps when used for telehealth (such as consumer technologies like Zoom), which can be easily infiltrated -- providing hackers with additional opportunities to breach highly-sensitive information,” said CynergisTek CEO Caleb Barlow. Of those who have used telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, 73 percent report they'll continue virtual visits after the pandemic passes, said the cybersecurity firm. Nearly 80% of men who have used a telehealth solution during the pandemic will continue using them post-COVID-19 vs. 67% of women. Among age groups, 81% of millennials plan to continue using telehealth options post-pandemic, 79% of Gen Xers.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Tuesday requested comment for developing principles for explainable artificial intelligence. NIST is accepting public comment on its draft document, Four Principles of Explainable Artificial Intelligence, until Oct. 15. The principles are: AI systems should include evidence or reasons for outputs; include meaningful explanations; explanations should correctly reflect system process for generating output; and systems should only operate “under conditions for which it was designed or when the system reaches a sufficient confidence in its output.”

Contractors should provide the Department of Homeland Security with unique identifiers for hardware on select agency networks, the GAO recommended Tuesday. GAO issued a report on “shortcomings in implementation of network monitoring” for improving cybersecurity tools. The identifiers will allow agencies to more accurately track hardware on networks, it said. Hardware inventories for the FAA, Indian Health Service and Small Business Administration “were missing information and contained duplicates,” GAO said. It recommended agencies “compare configurations to benchmarks.” DHS and the three agencies “concurred with the recommendations,” GAO said.

The Information Technology Industry Council said the eventual winner of the presidential election and the next Congress should expand “broadband access nationwide,” including “ensuring ubiquitous access to high-speed internet and equipment necessary for telehealth and remote learning,” as part of its 2021 agenda. ITI CEO Jason Oxman urged 2020 candidates Tuesday to “adopt an agenda that enables” education “and opportunities for all in America,” “the continued prosperity of American businesses by fostering a global market,” “the continued growth of America’s technological and innovative edge” and “continued trust in the technology solutions that will drive our recovery and ensure the resiliency of the infrastructure that underpins it.” Lawmakers should “spur investment” in broadband and 5G by “streamlining regulatory barriers, increasing spectrum availability, and providing government incentives and funding to reach unserved areas,” ITI said. The federal government should ensure the security of 5G and other global supply chains by adopting “risk management-based, public-private partnership efforts that take a holistic view of security threats.” The group urged the government to create “a uniform, federal privacy regime that enhances transparency, increases consumer control, and promotes security.” ITI wants more investment in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies and “a tax system that encourages job creation, economic growth, and international competitiveness.”

False information on political and social issues is allowed on most major social media platforms, Consumers Reports said Thursday. The publication/organization analyzed false information on Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, WhatsApp and TikTok. False information on political and social issues is allowed on all those platforms, though Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok were qualified as “sometimes,” CR said. WhatsApp appeared to score the worst, graded as “allowed” in all four categories: politics/social, health/Coronavirus, voting/census and manipulated media. Reddit and WhatsApp were the only platforms to allow false information in the voting/census category. Manipulated media is sometimes allowed on YouTube and Twitter and “allowed” on WhatsApp. The rest don’t allow manipulated media.

“Hard learnings” from the COVID-19 pandemic “reinforced” Vroom’s belief that “we are well on our way to building a business that can be a dominant digital car retailer in the coming years,” said CEO Paul Hennessy on a Q2 investor call Wednesday. The company runs an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used vehicles. Vroom is seeing a “fairly profound shift” in buying preferences toward lower price points during the rebound, said Hennessy. Its e-commerce tools “were able to discern the shift in real time,” he said. On the risk of Vroom’s $599 shipping fee becoming a sales inhibitor as average vehicle selling prices decline, “we have not yet seen that as a conversion negative,” said Hennessy. As Vroom works to build inventory in “remote locations,” a “geo-based” fee structure would make sense, he said. The stock closed 18.3% lower Thursday at $56.37.

Nebraska banned TikTok on all state electronic devices (see 2008060046), Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) announced Wednesday, citing security concerns. “TikTok is legally obligated to provide data from its users to [China’s] communist regime upon request,” he said, saying the decision is based on maintaining data security. The company didn’t comment.

Netflix and Hulu are defying Texas public utilities law by running their streaming service through local servers and “broadband wireline facilities located at least in part in public rights-of-way” without proper state authorization and payment of quarterly franchise fees, alleged the city of New Boston, Texas, in a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Texarkana. As video service providers, Netflix and Hulu were required to file for state-issued certificates of franchise authority through the state's Public Utility Commission, but didn’t do so, said the complaint, seeking class-action status on behalf of other Texas municipalities. The certificates would have freed them to use public ROWs in return for quarterly franchise fees equaling 5% of gross revenue to each city in which it provides service, “derived from their operations in that municipality,” it said. The complaint seeks the unpaid fees, plus declaratory judgment that Netflix and Hulu are violating the law. New Boston is about 20 miles west of Texarkana and 150 miles northeast of Dallas. Netflix and Hulu didn’t comment Wednesday.

Silicon Labs will livestream its first Works With global smart home technology conference Sept. 9-10 for engineers, developers and product managers, it said Wednesday. Engineers from Amazon, Comcast, Google and Silicon Labs are among participants scheduled to lead technical trainings on designing secure, scalable IoT solutions that work with all major platforms and protocols, said the company. “The next wave of IoT applications you’ll see in your home, work, and cities will increasingly be built on the connected technologies we and our community of developers, design collaborators and ecosystem partners create together,” said Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle.