Amazon released patches for Blink security camera vulnerabilities, said cybersecurity company Tenable Tuesday, after it discovered seven severe vulnerabilities in the Blink XT2. Amazon urged users to confirm their device is updated to firmware version 2.13.11 or later, Tenable said. If exploited, the vulnerabilities could give attackers full control of an affected device, allowing them to remotely view camera footage, listen to audio output and hijack the device for use in a botnet, Tenable said. Attackers could perform distributed denial of service attacks, steal data or send spam, it said, including obtaining sensitive account information, viewing stored photographs and videos, adding or removing devices from the account or blocking camera communications. Amazon emailed: “Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously. Customers have received automatic security updates addressing these issues for impacted devices.”

The FTC again delayed when comments are due on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule, now by two days to Wednesday. Monday's announcement came as Regulations.gov was offline. Our queries for more details on that website netted no new information. In the evening, the website appeared to be working. Previously, the commission delayed the COPPA review comments by about a month and a half, to Dec. 9.

Cambridge Analytica “engaged in deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting,” the FTC said in a 5-0 opinion Friday. The bankrupt consulting firm engaged in deceptive practices involving EU-U.S. Privacy Shield participation. The company is barred from misrepresenting itself again, the agency said. A July complaint alleged Cambridge Analytica and then-CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan deceived consumers. The individuals agreed to settle, while the company didn't respond, the commission said now. The company didn't respond to request for comment.

Be transparent when using facial recognition technology, specifically in collecting and using data, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Thursday. Other recommendations include: protect privacy and personal data; promote beneficial uses while mitigating risks; risk-based regulation; and establish a national regulatory framework.

Shopping from mobile devices over Black Friday weekend jumped to 62.9 percent from 57.5 percent last year, blogged Tara Bartley, Akamai senior manager-global industry marketing. Bartley attributed the higher rate of mobile shopping to ubiquity of devices, loyalty programs and an overall simplified buying process. Performance of an online retailer’s website or app must be “exceptional” and quick, she said Wednesday, and key is optimizing images and videos: “I want to see that sweater in every angle, in every color, and I want to see that lipstick on a curly-headed brunette.” Expectations of online consumers are "very high," she said.

Verizon is using Amazon Web Services for a 5G pilot where developers can deploy applications requiring ultra-low latency to 5G mobile devices, they said Tuesday. Developers could deliver latency-sensitive uses like machine learning inference, autonomous industrial equipment, smart cars and cities, IoT and augmented and virtual reality. Placing AWS compute and storage services at the edge of Verizon’s 5G network with AWS Wavelength brings processing power and storage physically closer to users and their devices. Customers in the Chicago trial include Bethesda Softworks and the NFL. Additional deployments are planned across the U.S. in 2020.

Many consumers “are familiar with the most blatant privacy-invasive potential of their devices,” reported the Electronic Frontier Foundation Monday. “Every smartphone is a pocket-sized GPS tracker, constantly broadcasting its location to parties unknown.” But these better known “surveillance channels” aren't “the most threatening to our privacy,” said EFF. “The unsettling truth is that although Facebook doesn’t listen to you through your phone, that’s just because it doesn’t need to. The most prevalent threat to our privacy is the slow, steady, relentless accumulation of relatively mundane data points about how we live our lives.” Trackers can “assemble data about our clicks, impressions, taps, and movement” and convert them “into sprawling behavioral profiles,” said EFF.

Ad-tech companies must obtain opt-in consent for use of sensor data for tailored ads, the Network Advertising Initiative said Monday in 2020 privacy guidance. NAI, a self-regulatory body, issued prior opt-in mandates for the use of precise location data, sensitive data and personal directory data for internet-based ads. The 2020 code expands the mandate to include sensor data, which refers to data gathered from a physical environment.

U.S. importers sourcing smart speakers, Bluetooth devices, smartwatches and fitness trackers from China filed the most List 4A U.S. tariff exclusion requests of any consumer tech category since the Office of U.S. Trade Representative began accepting requests Oct. 31, the docket shows. The goods had the widest tariff exposure of any consumer tech product on List 4A, found our review of International Trade Commission data. Importers of such goods from China likely paid about $221 million in the duties in the first month after the 15 percent duties took effect Sept. 1. Of six exemptions sought, three were from Apple and one each from Bose, Fitbit and Tile.

Though viewing on mobile devices of “short, snackable” videos under five minutes long is prevalent among two-thirds of U.S. consumers, watching “longer-form content” on smartphones is on the rise, reported Opensignal Wednesday. The mobile analytics firm canvassed 1,000 U.S. consumers and found 39 percent watch TV programs on their smartphones and 38 percent watch movies, it said. Longer-form content viewing on smartphones “increases substantially” for younger audiences, it said. Of consumers who say they watch movies or TV shows on a smartphone, 46 percent said they do so at home on a wireless connection, it said. Though consumers have grown accustomed to watching mobile video on wireless connections, frustrations run high, with 44 percent claiming to have experienced persistent “stuttering” or freezing when streaming content, it said. An additional 30 percent said they often give up trying to watch, it said.