Built into Akamai’s 2020 revenue forecast is the assumption that it will “participate” in many of the new over-the-top video services “that are coming to market, and some that are expanding,” said Chief Financial Officer Edward McGowan on a Q4 call Tuesday. The network provider expects 2020 revenue growth to be in a range of $3.06 billion-$3.11 billion, vs. $2.89 billion in 2019, said McGowan. “In addition to more global expansion of existing OTT offerings that have been announced for later this year, we are aware of several new direct-to-consumer OTT launches planned for late spring and early summer” that haven’t been publicized, he said. Akamai also is counting on a big second-half revenue bounce from streaming for the Tokyo Olympics in Q3 and the presidential election “cycle” in Q4, he said. “It's really hard to call how successful these will be,” he said of the new OTT service offerings. “We have conversations with the customers. We know what their plans are. We make sure we build our capacity to be able to capture as much of the traffic that we can. But it really does come down to end-consumer demand.” Akamai’s goal is to “grow our share, have even more massive scale,” said CEO Thomson Leighton. “Already today, we're the go-to player, if you ask any of the big OTT guys, and we want to grow that further.”

Venture capitalists and antitrust enforcers share similar values and goals of favoring dynamic competition and seeing disruption as often a positive, DOJ antitrust head Makan Delrahim said in an address Wednesday, according to prepared remarks. He said DOJ is interested in whether any current digital platforms are so dominant, with the ability to restrict access to inputs or to distribution of products, that investors shy away from developing products relying on those platforms. He said there's a debate about the value of keep private data regarding how people interact with technology and websites, but there also are questions of what that information might be worth in different markets and how consumers might be served by rules that allow that data's collection and use.

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights hasn’t incorporated “key cybersecurity management practices into the planning for its Secure Online Claims Reporting and Tracking E-filing System (SOCRATES) project,” GAO reported Tuesday. The independent office drafted a schedule for the project but “did not finalize and use this schedule to manage cybersecurity activities, such as the time frames for conducting information technology (IT) system security assessments. In addition, the office did not document project cybersecurity risks, such as the office’s reliance on external parties to implement responsibilities on its behalf.” GAO found those “weaknesses were due, in part, to a lack of policies and procedures for IT project planning,” which will continue to hamper OCWR’s IT projects until it begins establishing and implementing those policies. OCWR told GAO it’s “in the process of revising our IT systems project planning to ensure the development and implementation of policies and procedure incorporating key cybersecurity activities.”

Chinese military personnel were charged with hacking Equifax in 2017 and stealing personal data, DOJ announced Monday. A federal grand jury charged four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army with conspiring to steal data from some 145 million Americans during a three-month hacking. Attorney General William Barr said this economic espionage “fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information.” Equifax CEO Mark Begor thanked DOJ for treating state-sponsored cybercrime with the “seriousness” it deserves: “Combating this challenge from well-financed nation-state actors that operate outside the rule of law is increasingly difficult. Fighting this cyberwar will require the type of open cooperation and partnership between government, law enforcement and private business that we have experienced firsthand.” The indictment doesn’t excuse Equifax deficiencies that enabled the breach, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said: “A company in the business of collecting and retaining massive amounts of Americans’ sensitive personal information must act with the utmost care -- and face any consequences that arise from that failure.” He urged support for his data broker legislation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (see 1905070066). The Chinese Embassy didn't comment. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., echoed Warner, saying companies become “irresistible targets” when cutting corners on security. He urged support for his Mind Your Own Business Act (see 1910170035). The indictments show a need for secure infrastructure, not “onerous privacy regulations,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said Monday: “The ongoing debate about consumer data privacy has been muddled and misguided from the outset -- focusing the blame on corporate victims rather than on the perpetrators of state-directed cyber espionage.”

Section 230-related draft legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., (see 1912190079) threatens free expression and privacy, the Center for Democracy & Technology wrote Friday. It could prevent platforms from providing end-to-end encryption, and would “give the Attorney General significant and unaccountable power to regulate speech, control online services, and undermine our privacy and security,” CDT said. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields platforms from liability for user content.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) released revised draft rules to implement the California Consumer Privacy Act, based on suggestions in about 200 received comments. The AG office wants comments on revisions by Feb. 24, it said in a Friday notice. The AG expects to start enforcing the law July 1, though some are seeking delay (see 2001290040). The AG added guidance on what is personal information, saying it “depends on whether the business maintains information in a manner that ‘identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.’ For example, if a business collects the IP addresses of visitors to its website but does not link the IP address to any particular consumer or household, and could not reasonably link the IP address with a particular consumer or household, then the IP address would not be ‘personal information.’” Service providers “shall not retain, use, or disclose personal information obtained in the course of providing services except” to perform services specified in the written contract with the business providing it, to retain and employ a subcontractor, for internal use to build or improve services and to detect data security incidents or combat fraudulent or illegal activity, the revised draft says. Another addition says a business may not require a consumer to pay a fee to verify requests for or to delete information. “For example, a business may not require a consumer to provide a notarized affidavit to verify their identity unless the business compensates the consumer for the cost of notarization.” A business may deny a request for specific personal information if it can’t verify the identity of the requestor, said another addition. “If the business has no reasonable method by which it can verify any consumer, the business shall explain why it has no reasonable verification method in its privacy policy.” Notices should be “reasonably” accessible to people with disabilities, said another clarification. The AG also adjusted definitions of some terms including household and added examples illustrating certain rules. "If there are no further changes, the Attorney General will finalize the text of the regulations and other documents in the rulemaking file," a Becerra spokesperson emailed. "The Office of Administrative Law will have 30 business days to review the regulations, and if OAL approves, the rules will go into effect."

Mobile as a share of total holiday e-commerce set a high at nearly 32 percent in 2019, Comscore reported Thursday. Mobile spending grew 23 percent from the 2018 holiday season. Overall holiday digital commerce was $133.7 billion, up 16 percent vs. 19 percent growth in the year-ago period. Beginning Nov. 1, 87 percent of days leading up to Christmas were “billion-dollar” spending days, said analyst Ian Essling. In-store pickup gained traction, with half of consumers surveyed preseason saying they were somewhat likely to use it.

Consumers “just don’t need traditional TV,” blogged Google TV Tuesday, announcing Google Fiber is no longer offering a linear TV product to new customers. Google is offering fuboTV through its internet service, giving subscribers a choice of two streaming services, including YouTube TV, announced in December. Google will continue to provide traditional TV service to existing customers in the 18 markets where it operates, it said. Pushing next-generation internet TV, Google said: “You no longer need pricey bundles that force you into paying for channels you’ll never watch.” Google Fiber will help all customers “explore other options” to get programming “the way TV is watched now.” Its internet service promises up to 1 Gbps for up to 20 devices. Some customers were cautious and skeptical about the change. Jeff Gordanier asked if he would be able to go back to Fiber TV service after a couple of months if he found he didn’t like streaming. The company replied that option won’t be available “at this time.” Robby Barnes suggested it would be a good time to start offering “higher resolution options” with YouTube TV. @Neurisko asked why he can't stream DVR'd programs to other devices in the house “besides my TV" which he called "a no-brainer.” Google Fiber said it would "submit feedback on your behalf with this feature suggestion."

Department of Homeland Security directives “strengthened federal cybersecurity, but improvements are needed,” GAO said Tuesday. One benefit was a 2015 critical vulnerability mitigation directive, which required agencies to address vulnerabilities discovered by DHS cyber scans within 30 days, GAO said. This resulted in 87 percent federal compliance by 2017. GAO recommended DHS coordinate with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the General Services Administration on the directive development process. DHS agreed (see page 73) with GAO’s recommendations, saying its efforts have primarily been led by the agency’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. During GAO’s review, DHS was in the process of updating its cybersecurity directives. DHS plans to complete revision of its directive development process by Sept. 30.

The Disney Plus streaming service, launched in November, had 26.5 million paid subscribers at the Dec. 29 close of fiscal Q1 and added 2.1 million more through Monday, said Disney CEO Bob Iger on a Tuesday earnings call. Disney intends to announce paid subs “as of the end of the quarter we’re reporting on,” he said. “Conversions from free to pay and churn rates were better than we expected,” said Iger. He said Disney won't disclose "specifics" on those metrics. The “next big priority” is launching Disney Plus internationally, he said. The service will debut March 24 in eight Western European markets, including the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy, he said. Belgium, the Nordics and Portugal “will follow this summer,” he said. Disney Plus will launch March 29 in India through Disney’s existing Hotstar service, said Iger. “We see this as a great opportunity to use the proven platform of Hotstar to launch the new Disney Plus service in one of the most populous countries and one of the fast-growing economies.”