Arlo CEO Matt McRae announced plans to extend the SmartCloud platform to partners “beyond our own camera ecosystem,” as the company looks to boost revenue. It also announced Wednesday evening management changes from within the company to “streamline operations” (see personals section). The change “effectively flattens the organization,” it said, citing efforts to cut operating expenses. Shares closed 6.5% lower Thursday at $2.74.

An ICANN rejection of the .org deal wouldn't mean "the end of the road," Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Cara Gagliano said at a briefing on the proposed sale of Public Interest Registry (PIR) to private equity firm Ethos Capital. Later Thursday, ICANN's board held a special meeting to discuss the transaction. If it nixes it, it's “effectively dead,” Gagliano said at a news conference. If it lets the decision deadline slide, the deal can proceed. Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) of California, where ICANN is headquartered, recommended that ICANN reject the plan (see 2004160062). Under state law, the AG can seek a court order limiting what can be done with the .org registry contract with ICANN, effectively ending the sale, said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz. The AG in Pennsylvania, where PIR is incorporated, has broad power to investigate transactions involving nonprofits and can file objections in the court that must approve the sale, Gagliano said. Asked whether any private groups intend to try to block the sale, Stoltz said: “We're looking into all the options.” Transaction opponents have heard from congressional members and several foreign governments concerned about the matter, Access Now General Counsel Peter Micek told reporters. Most civil society organizations agree they would prefer not to get the U.S. government involved but say it's wholly appropriate for it to scrutinize the proposal under its duty to safeguard the public interest. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said China routinely uses economic clout to censor critics, increasingly since COVID-19 emerged. Concerns include fears of “censorship for profit” if the registry suspends domain names at the behest of companies, Stoltz said: If PIR becomes a for-profit corporation with millions of dollars to pay off, there will be an incentive to use censorship to help defray those costs. That could mean shutting down apps and email addresses, he said. The pandemic showed how private equity firms degraded infrastructures people depend on, such as hospitals, by extracting resources, said Access Now Global Campaign Strategist Carolyn Tackett.

Internet use during the COVID-19 is “at a scale that the world has never experienced,” said Akamai CEO Tom Leighton on a Q1 investor call Tuesday. Traffic on the Akamai platform increased by about 30% over a four-week period at the end of Q1, he said. It peaked at 167 terabits per second during the quarter, more than double the peak of Q1 2019, he said. Q1 revenue in Akamai’s media division jumped 8% to $358 million, said Chief Financial Officer Ed McGowan. The “outperformance” in media was mainly due to the “surge” in traffic from over-the-top video, gaming, social media and news and information sites, “as more and more people around the world began to shelter in place,” he said.

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Verizon to buy BlueJeans Network, a videoconferencing platform (see 2004160004). An FTC early termination notice dated Monday and released Tuesday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

The FTC voted 3-2 Tuesday to amend and update Facebook’s 2012 privacy order, reflecting a $5 billion settlement between the two sides in July (see 2004240052). Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissented, as they did in the July settlement. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly for the District of Columbia entered the order Thursday, prompting a statement from Chairman Joe Simons. “The order requires Facebook to restructure its approach to privacy from the corporate board-level down,” the FTC said. It “further establishes strong new mechanisms to ensure that Facebook executives are accountable for the decisions they make about privacy.” Facebook didn't comment.

Annotated state legal code isn’t copyright protected, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in Georgia v. Public.Resource.org (18-1150). The state sued after Public.Resource.Org founder Carl Malamud posted official state code online and shared copies. The government edicts doctrine dictates officials can’t be the authors of “the works they create in the course of their official duties,” meaning they aren't copyright protected, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented. The ruling will likely be “a shock” to the 22 states, two territories and Washington, D.C., that “rely on arrangements similar to Georgia’s to produce annotated codes,” Thomas wrote for dissenters. He claimed the decision extends the government edicts doctrine to a “new context,” when Congress should be deciding whether the Copyright Act “needs an upgrade.” Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Meredith Rose called the decision a “resounding victory for public access to the law,” saying copyright law shouldn’t block citizens’ fundamental rights. Center for Democracy & Technology interim co-CEO Lisa Hayes made similar remarks: “People must have the right to anonymously access the law, without needing to pay hundreds of dollars.” The Georgia Office of Legislative Counsel didn’t comment.

Amazon launched an internal investigation into allegations in a report in The Wall Street Journal Thursday saying employees used data about independent sellers on the company’s platform to develop competing products. Amazon doesn’t believe the claims are accurate, a spokesperson emailed, but takes the allegations “very seriously.” Like other retailers, “we look at sales and store data to provide our customers with the best possible experience,” she said. “We strictly prohibit our employees from using non-public, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch.”

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for communications hardware company MaxLinear to buy various Intel entities. An FTC early termination notice dated Tuesday and released Wednesday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

ICANN is acting against COVID-19 domain name system abuse, CEO Goran Marby blogged. There are wide reports of criminals using the pandemic to launch malicious online campaigns and increased use of COVID-19-related domains for DNS abuse, he wrote Monday: New threats include phishing, business email compromise and malware distribution. Some cases allegedly involve fraudsters luring Internet users into giving away access credentials and confidential information with the promise that they are buying supposed cures for the coronavirus and personal protective equipment. The organization developed a system to help identify abusive domains that use terms such as "coronavirus" or "ncov"; assess them against threat intelligence sources to see if they're involved in phishing and malware; and notify authorities. "Combating abuse requires predictable and reliable access to domain name registration data with a legitimate interest," Marby wrote. ICANN is trying to clarify whether under the EU general data protection regulation, a unified access model for global top-level domain name registration is possible, Marby wrote: "The ICANN community has not received the requested guidance."

Among U.S. broadband households, 79% are concerned about data security or privacy, blogged Parks Associates Monday. “The rising need for seamless and more holistic digital protection creates a business opportunity for many ecosystem players in the connected home security space,” said analyst Brad Russell.