The Information Technology Industry Council said the eventual winner of the presidential election and the next Congress should expand “broadband access nationwide,” including “ensuring ubiquitous access to high-speed internet and equipment necessary for telehealth and remote learning,” as part of its 2021 agenda. ITI CEO Jason Oxman urged 2020 candidates Tuesday to “adopt an agenda that enables” education “and opportunities for all in America,” “the continued prosperity of American businesses by fostering a global market,” “the continued growth of America’s technological and innovative edge” and “continued trust in the technology solutions that will drive our recovery and ensure the resiliency of the infrastructure that underpins it.” Lawmakers should “spur investment” in broadband and 5G by “streamlining regulatory barriers, increasing spectrum availability, and providing government incentives and funding to reach unserved areas,” ITI said. The federal government should ensure the security of 5G and other global supply chains by adopting “risk management-based, public-private partnership efforts that take a holistic view of security threats.” The group urged the government to create “a uniform, federal privacy regime that enhances transparency, increases consumer control, and promotes security.” ITI wants more investment in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies and “a tax system that encourages job creation, economic growth, and international competitiveness.”
False information on political and social issues is allowed on most major social media platforms, Consumers Reports said Thursday. The publication/organization analyzed false information on Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, WhatsApp and TikTok. False information on political and social issues is allowed on all those platforms, though Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok were qualified as “sometimes,” CR said. WhatsApp appeared to score the worst, graded as “allowed” in all four categories: politics/social, health/Coronavirus, voting/census and manipulated media. Reddit and WhatsApp were the only platforms to allow false information in the voting/census category. Manipulated media is sometimes allowed on YouTube and Twitter and “allowed” on WhatsApp. The rest don’t allow manipulated media.
“Hard learnings” from the COVID-19 pandemic “reinforced” Vroom’s belief that “we are well on our way to building a business that can be a dominant digital car retailer in the coming years,” said CEO Paul Hennessy on a Q2 investor call Wednesday. The company runs an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used vehicles. Vroom is seeing a “fairly profound shift” in buying preferences toward lower price points during the rebound, said Hennessy. Its e-commerce tools “were able to discern the shift in real time,” he said. On the risk of Vroom’s $599 shipping fee becoming a sales inhibitor as average vehicle selling prices decline, “we have not yet seen that as a conversion negative,” said Hennessy. As Vroom works to build inventory in “remote locations,” a “geo-based” fee structure would make sense, he said. The stock closed 18.3% lower Thursday at $56.37.
Nebraska banned TikTok on all state electronic devices (see 2008060046), Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) announced Wednesday, citing security concerns. “TikTok is legally obligated to provide data from its users to [China’s] communist regime upon request,” he said, saying the decision is based on maintaining data security. The company didn’t comment.
Netflix and Hulu are defying Texas public utilities law by running their streaming service through local servers and “broadband wireline facilities located at least in part in public rights-of-way” without proper state authorization and payment of quarterly franchise fees, alleged the city of New Boston, Texas, in a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Texarkana. As video service providers, Netflix and Hulu were required to file for state-issued certificates of franchise authority through the state's Public Utility Commission, but didn’t do so, said the complaint, seeking class-action status on behalf of other Texas municipalities. The certificates would have freed them to use public ROWs in return for quarterly franchise fees equaling 5% of gross revenue to each city in which it provides service, “derived from their operations in that municipality,” it said. The complaint seeks the unpaid fees, plus declaratory judgment that Netflix and Hulu are violating the law. New Boston is about 20 miles west of Texarkana and 150 miles northeast of Dallas. Netflix and Hulu didn’t comment Wednesday.
Silicon Labs will livestream its first Works With global smart home technology conference Sept. 9-10 for engineers, developers and product managers, it said Wednesday. Engineers from Amazon, Comcast, Google and Silicon Labs are among participants scheduled to lead technical trainings on designing secure, scalable IoT solutions that work with all major platforms and protocols, said the company. “The next wave of IoT applications you’ll see in your home, work, and cities will increasingly be built on the connected technologies we and our community of developers, design collaborators and ecosystem partners create together,” said Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle.
The DOJ announced actions Wednesday shutting more than 300 websites “purporting to sell scarce health and safety items.” The department secured restraining orders in federal court against three residents of Vietnam: Thu Phan Dinh, Tran Khanh and Nguyen Duy Toan, who “are alleged to have engaged in a wire fraud scheme seeking to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
R Street Institute Resident Fellow-Technology and Innovation Jeffrey Westling clarified that he doesn’t agree with a past position of a client of NTIA acting Administrator Adam Candeub on Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2008100046).
Zoom “falsely and repeatedly” claimed it used end-to-end encryption to protect users’ videoconferencing communications, Consumer Watchdog alleged in a lawsuit announced Tuesday. Zoom made false promises throughout its website when the company has always had access to data on the platform, the lawsuit said. Filed in D.C. Superior Court, the lawsuit alleges violations against the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act. "We take privacy and security extremely seriously and are committed to continuous enhancements, including the timely beta testing and implementation of end-to-end encryption," a company spokesperson said.
Congress should consider “strengthening the consumer privacy framework” to reflect face-scanning technology and marketplace changes, the GAO said Tuesday. The agency repeated its 2013 recommendation with particular focus on consumer data used for marketing. Face-scanning technology can be used to enable payments, locate shoplifters and monitor COVID-19, but there are concerns, the GAO said: loss of anonymity, lack of consent and the potential for racial bias.