The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delayed oral argument by about five months in Jewel v. NSA (19-16066). The mass surveillance case involving AT&T customers (see 2003230004) now will be heard 10:30 a.m. Nov. 2 in Seattle.
ICANN delayed to May 4 its decision further whether to approve the .org deal. A Thursday letter from ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey to Public Interest Registry President Jon Nevett confirmed the organizations agreed the April 20 deadline would be extended. "ICANN is not providing or withholding its consent at this time and PIR agrees that ICANN shall not be 'deemed' to have consented under any of PIR's registry agreements as a result of this extension," the letter said. It's unclear whether the delay is the result of a Wednesday letter from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) urging ICANN to reject the transfer of PIR from the Internet Society to private equity firm Ethos Capital (see 2004160062). Ethos told us Friday it's "working closely with" the AG to address the outstanding concerns in his letter, emailing that "specific aspects of the transaction that were not referenced in the letter, including actions we've taken that prove our intent to be a valued partner of PIR and .ORG." Ethos hopes to continue talks with the AG, it added.
Tech-assisted contact tracing apps pose privacy, civil rights and civil liberties risks, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday, outlining principles for government and industry (see 2004100037). The ACLU requested the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release records concerning conversations with the “tech industry and plans for using location tracking technology to address the COVID-19 crisis.” The organization recommended apps be voluntary and that companies store data on “an individual’s device rather than in a centralized repository.” It backed use limitations, data minimization, data deletion and transparency, and opposed “mission creep,” meaning the tracking shouldn’t continue after COVID-19.
Chief information officers should integrate Schema.org tags into COVID-19-related federal webpages “to help surface the latest federal guidance and information in search engine results,” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Wednesday. Schema.org is a partnership involving Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, that created standard tags for making specific information easier to find in results.
Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee member Eve Lewis, assistant city attorney in Coconut Creek, Florida, emailed Tuesday she's “optimistic” about discussions between industry and local governments on permitting during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2004130050). “Often times, the largest hurdle is opening channels of communication among all stakeholders,” Lewis said: “This effort seeks to do that.”
Until DOD completes and implements its “cyber hygiene initiatives,” it will “face an enhanced risk of successful attack,” GAO reported Monday. Seven of the 11 tasks from an initiative aren't fully implemented, and there’s no entity monitoring progress, the auditor said: Of 17 tasks, at least four aren't in place. The Pentagon concurred with one of seven recommendations and partially concurred with four. Since the 2015 plan, the department said it has issued “new or updated versions of a number of cyberrelated strategies, including the DOD Cyber Strategy.”
Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Fox to buy streaming platform Tubi for about $440 million. An FTC early termination notice dated Thursday and released Friday ended the transaction's Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.
ICANN wants feedback in a week on updated public interest commitments for .org, President Goran Marby blogged Wednesday. The Public Interest Registry, which the Internet Society proposed selling to Ethos Capital, revised its PICs in response to ICANN questions (see 2003090027). The changes include a pricing table that further clarifies the maximum service fee to be charged for .org domain names, and assurances a stewardship council will start within six months of the PIC being added to PIR's registry agreement. Marby wrote that "PICs are enforceable by ICANN," noting board members "have reservations" about their enforceability. The organization must decide by April 20 whether to greenlight the deal.
Antitrust head Makan Delrahim said DOJ is considering next steps after U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark of Wilmington, Delaware, rejected its complaint that Sabre's purchase of online airfare booking services firm Farelogix would violate the Clayton Act. In the opinion entered Wednesday (docket 19-cv-01548), Stark said the deal wouldn't increase pricing or deter innovation, and DOJ failed to define a proper relevant market. He said he found the department's economic expert unpersuasive, seemingly not knowing much about the airline booking industry, and said the DOJ didn't prove it was entitled to a presumption of competitive harm. Delrahim said the agency is "disappointed."
The FTC Wednesday cautioned companies about risks to consumers of artificial intelligence technology used to make predictions, recommendations or decisions. AI could enable “unfair or discriminatory outcomes” or the perpetuation of existing socioeconomic disparities, blogged Competition Bureau Director Andrew Smith. Companies using AI should take care not to mislead consumers about the nature of an interaction, he said, citing “engager profiles” of attractive potential mates to induce customers to sign up for a dating service. How companies get data is important: Secretly collecting sensitive data could give rise to an FTC action, Smith said, noting Facebook misled consumers last year by telling them they could opt in to facial recognition even though the setting was on by default. Companies that make automated decisions based on third-party information may have to provide consumers with an “adverse action” notice, explaining their right to see information reported about them and to correct inaccurate information.