To enhance information sharing and enforcement cooperation on privacy-related matters, the FTC said Monday it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA). The FTC said its Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Dutch DPA Chairman Jacob Kohnstamm signed the MOU after the commission voted unanimously in favor of the agreement, which is similar to agreements the FTC currently has with data protection authorities in Ireland and the U.K. “In our interconnected world, cross-border cooperation is increasingly important,” Ramirez said in a news release. “This arrangement with our Dutch counterpart will strengthen FTC efforts to protect the privacy of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic,” she said. “Signing of this MOU between the Dutch DPA and the FTC is a great step,” Kohnstamm said, and “marks the good relationship between our offices.”

More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.

Supply chain services supplier Ingram Micro acquired Anovo, a Europe-based provider of repair services for smartphones and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America, Ingram said Monday. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Ingram said it expects Anovo to contribute more than $300 million in annual service revenue.

The number of apps downloaded to smartphones and tablets is expected to grow roughly 28 percent this year to over 235 billion, said a Juniper Research report. Fueling the projected rise is “phenomenal growth” in downloads in the Chinese market, which last year accounted for six in 10 downloads worldwide, said Juniper. Local digital storefronts have benefited from Google’s near exclusion from the China market, said Juniper, and search engine company Baidu has been the primary beneficiary. Baidu’s app store, which is effectively integrated into the search engine, has passed iTunes to become the second-largest app store globally in download volume, said Juniper. While five of the top seven app stores in download volume are China-based, China still lags the U.S. and Japan in app revenue, it said. Revenue per download is nine times higher in the U.S. and 14 times higher in Japan, said the researcher. Games are the most mature and lucrative app sector and offer “significant scope for growth” in both developed and developing markets, said Juniper, citing a migration from handheld game consoles to mobile devices and “continued social gaming growth.” Adoption and monetization of multimedia apps is likely to be fueled further by network operators bundling multimedia applications with customer subscriptions, it said. “Broadcasters are now offering distinct and bolt-on mobile packages, a trend which will gain further impetus as customers migrate to larger screen phablet devices,” said analyst Windsor Holden.

U.K. spy agency GCHQ was able to hack into the internal networks of Gemalto, “the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications” on carriers including “AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world,” The Intercept reported Thursday. “In other words, for millions or even billions of users around the world, global cellular communications are about as secure from GCHQ and NSA as an FM radio broadcast,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Nadia Kayyali in a blog post Thursday. Normally calls, texts and other communications made on a mobile phone are encrypted as they travel from a mobile device to a carrier’s tower, Kayyali wrote. Only those who had the encryption key, known as "Ki," would be able to decrypt that communication. GCHQ and the NSA “obtained the master keys -- literally and figuratively -- to unlock millions, if not billions, of the world’s mobile devices” while leaving no trace on the network or on an individual users’ device, Kayyali said. “This is an unprecedented mass attack on the privacy of citizens worldwide,” said Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim in a statement Friday. “There is certainly value in targeted surveillance of cell phone communications,” Nojeim said, but “this coordinated subversion of the trusted technical security infrastructure of cell phones means the U.S. and British governments now have easy access to our mobile communications.” Standards "for intelligence surveillance are weak worldwide,” Nojeim said, urging a global response “to the threats of government surveillance” and that government surveillance standards be substantially raised. Due to a ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal Feb. 6, which said intelligence sharing between GCHQ and the NSA was unlawful before December 2014, Americans may file a request at the Privacy International website to learn if the NSA provided GCHQ with information about them. Risk of a privacy violation after filing a request is relatively low, Kayyali wrote in another blog post on Friday. “The payoff is that the more people who sign on and learn that they’ve been affected by GCHQ and NSA spying, the clearer it becomes that reform to surveillance is urgently needed.” "It is longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters," said a GCHQ spokesperson. "All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position. In addition, the UK's interception regime is entirely compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights." A spokeswoman for Sprint said the company had no comment. AT&T, NSA, T-Mobile and Verizon didn't comment by our deadline.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will now consider approval for U.S. telecom exports to Sudan on a case-by-case basis, rather than keeping in place the agency’s previous policy of denial for such exports, it said in a final rule in Wednesday's Federal Register. BIS also will expand the consumer communications devices (CDD) license exception for U.S. telecom exports to the Sudanese private sector, it said. The CCD license exception, authorized in 2009 but restricted to exports to Cuba, covers shipments to Sudan starting Wednesday. Most of the items covered under the CCD don’t require licenses for export to most countries, BIS said in the final rule. BIS published this rule alongside a concurrent Treasury Department rule. Treasury's decision on the export of hardware and software “incident to personal communications” to Sudan comes "after years of campaigning from Sudanese and international activists," Electronic Frontier Foundation Director-International Freedom of Expression Jillian York wrote on EFF's blog Wednesday. "The sanctions restrict the export of everything from MOOCs [massive open online courses] to mobile phones, harming innovation, access to information, and development. For a country like Sudan, where the number of Internet users has grown from around 400,000 to more than 8 million in less than a decade, the forthcoming influx of technology can mean a world of difference for average consumers."

Freeview, the U.K.’s subscription-free digital TV service, is being rebranded as Freeview Play “in preparation for a new product launch that will introduce a mass market connected TV offer,” said DTV Services, the consortium of BBC, Sky, Channel 4, ITV and Arqiva that runs the service. “The Freeview logo and visual identity have been refreshed to reflect the platform’s evolving service and will be introduced across Freeview’s product portfolio and brand marketing.”

“Take Action Now -- Help Avoid a Full West Coast Ports Shutdown,” headlines a grassroots letter campaign launched Thursday warning that West Coast ports have “been temporarily shut down through Monday.” CEA fears “a full shutdown is possible after that if West Coast labor negotiations collapse between dockworkers and port terminal operators,” it said. “If this occurs, U.S. trade will immediately suffer.” CEA estimates a ports shutdown “could cost the U.S. economy $2 billion a day, impacting a range of goods we rely on -- agriculture, manufacturing, retail and transportation,” it said. “Congress and the White House must urge these groups to stay at the negotiating table. Tell the President and your members of Congress to get involved -- a possible shutdown will hurt American businesses, middle-class workers and the economy."

Sony expects to emerge relatively unscathed financially for the fiscal year ending March 31 from the cyberattack that caused “serious disruption” to the Sony Pictures Entertainment network and information technology infrastructure, the company said Wednesday. But for the $15 million in “investigation and remediation costs” to be recorded for Q3, Sony thinks the “impact of the cyberattack” on its overall results for the fiscal year “will not be material,” the company said. Sony Pictures expects to finish the year with a 7.3 percent revenue increase and an operating profit about 2.4 billion yen higher than a year earlier, Sony said. Though the Sony Pictures operating income target is slightly lower than in the October forecast, its revenue target actually is 3.5 percent higher than the forecast in October, a month before the cyberattack. The White House has blamed on North Korea the hack of Sony Pictures, which resulted in many emails and other confidential information being released online (see 1412180056).

Promoting cross-border data flows while “respecting data protection rules” was one of the Computer & Communications Industry Association's five recommendations to improve Europe digital trade via the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. CCIA released a report with the recommendations in a news release Monday. The report said TTIP should avoid “forced localization of data, network infrastructure or investments.” “We need international trade rules based on our shared transatlantic values and high standards,” Christian Borggreen, CCIA-Europe director, said in the release. “The EU-U.S. trade talks offer an historic opportunity to eliminate needless barriers to digital trade and create policies that reflect the realities of a 21st Century, Internet-enabled economy.”