The Commerce and Homeland Security departments have collaborated on more than 50 activities “led by industry and government” for countering botnet threats, NTIA reported Thursday. It said those efforts include the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s IoT device manufacturer guidance and NTIA’s draft guidance for software bill of materials (see 1902200061). The Council to Secure the Digital Economy’s anti-botnet guide was also highlighted (see 1908130047). “Stopping botnet threats is an ecosystem-wide challenge that will take significant cooperation over time to accomplish,” NTIA said.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Leadership Conference Education Fund and more than two dozen other groups urged lawmakers, vendors and companies Wednesday to implement guardrails to ensure new hiring assessment technologies that rely on algorithms and artificial intelligence don’t discriminate against marginalized groups. AI “by its very nature, risks replicating and deepening existing inequities when it relies on data from the current workforce that is not sufficiently representative,” the groups said in a set of principles. “Hiring assessment technologies must advance equity, not erect artificial barriers to employment. This will require proactive interventions.”

Buying activity in eBay’s core marketplaces grew 29% in Q2, its “highest quarterly growth rate in 15 years,” said CEO Jamie Iannone on an investor call. EBay hired him in April from Walmart, where he was chief operating office for e-commerce (see personals section, April 14). He was an eBay vice president for eight years before leaving in 2009 to become CEO of SamsClub.com. “Consumer behavior is rapidly evolving and this dynamic has been accelerated by COVID-19," said Iannone Tuesday evening. The pandemic is significantly speeding buying activity growth and "new customer acquisition,” he said. But he’s “not satisfied with where we currently stand,” he said. “We've not executed to our full potential. New competitors have taken share because we neglected our core area of expertise.” EBay wrongly focused on new areas that “could not drive sustainable or profitable growth,” he said. “To be candid, we did not adapt quickly enough to the rapidly changing needs of our customers.” The company has “enormous untapped potential that we absolutely must capitalize on,” he said. “This is what brought me back to eBay.” Reshaping the company will be a “multiyear process,” he said. “Tech-led reimagination, our plan is to become the best marketplace in the world for buyers and sellers.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved a waiver request by Leica Geosystems to allow its Ictos radar system on commercial drones (see 1911210063). The system uses multiple radar modules in the 60-64 GHz for hazard detection in flight. OET will permit sale of 400 devices the first year and 800 in subsequent years. “As we will limit the number of Ictos devices per year, the use of the Ictos device will be restricted and contained,” said an order Tuesday in docket 19-350: It won't "increase the potential for harmful interference to other services in the 60-64 GHz band.”

Facebook moved the release of its Q2 financials to Thursday after market close, from Wednesday, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before the House Antitrust Subcommittee, said the company Monday. Facebook also scheduled an earnings call for 6 p.m. EDT Thursday. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple and Google also will testify at Wednesday’s noon hearing on the market “dominance” of online platforms. The hearing itself was rescheduled from Monday (see 2007270021).

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act isn’t the blanket immunity opponents claim, the Internet Association reported Monday, analyzing the liability shield. Examining 516 court decisions in the past 20 years, IA said the liability shield was “the primary basis for a court’s ruling in 42 percent of decisions.” Defamation is the most common claim brought under 230, IA said, saying 43% involved such a claim. IA urged Congress to complete a review of 230-related cases before considering legislation.

Sigma Designs shareholders of record through Aug. 3 will get a final payout of 28 cents a share under a board-approved plan to finish liquidating and dissolving the company. The former Z-Wave owner and once-formidable SoC supplier -- it was the first to announce Dolby Vision support in September 2014 (see 1409040067) -- “has been working to wind down all of its operations and resolve all outstanding creditor claims,” it said Friday. Shareholders approved the liquidation plan more than two years ago, but phasing out Sigma subsidiaries in Europe and Asia “has taken longer than originally anticipated,” it said. The final distribution of $11.4 million will bring to $252 million “the total amount of cash returned to shareholders,” it said.

About half of American youth don’t use Facebook, and user time there declined about 20% since 2015, NetChoice reported Thursday. Social media competitors include YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and Parler, the report said. It listed digital ad competitors like Google, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the Rubicon Project. “There is no antitrust case against Facebook,” NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo said. “Instead, Facebook has benefited users, advertisers, and publishers.” Fears about internet dominance are misplaced, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation said. Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have less than 20% of S&P 500 value, ITIF said. In the early 1960s, the top five share was more than 30% among General Motors, Ford Motor, General Electric and two companies that are now ExxonMobil.

The $38 million in Trade Act Section 301 tariff costs iRobot incurred in 2019 inflicted a hit of 3 percentage points on its gross margin for the year, said CEO Colin Angle. IRobot assumes the List 3 tariff exclusion that landed last month on the robotic vacuum cleaners it sources from China will expire at the end of 2020, he said. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer “made it quite explicit” in congressional testimony last month that any granted List 3 exemptions “would expire at the end of the year,” said Angle Wednesday after quarterly results. The company’s “cash position” improved when it recently started receiving “cash payments associated with our tariff refunds” from the Trump administration, said Chief Financial Officer Julie Zeiler. “We anticipate receiving the $57 million in tariff-related refunds owed to us over the next 12 months.” IRobot is “continuing to push with all energy to drive the diversification of our manufacturing base,” said Angle. Delay in shifting production to Malaysia and bringing it to scale “has been one of the impacts of COVID-19,” he said. “There’s travel bans in place” that inhibit “sending people into Malaysia, which has created a delay,” he said. The company is trying to get that work “back on track,” he said. “We do believe that by the end of 2021, we’ll be in a situation where we are effectively geographically diversified and U.S.-China trade policy does not substantially affect our business anymore.” Europe is the region most reliant on brick-and-mortar, and stores were shuttered for much of the quarter, he said. Europe’s e-commerce infrastructure also is less “mature” and the system buckled under the weight of demand for essential products during the pandemic, he said. E-commerce revenue grew about 50% in Q2 from the year-ago quarter and was more than 70% of total quarterly revenue, said Angle. IRobot stock closed $79.35, down 7.49%.

Amazon’s Alexa Live 2020 voice developer event kicked off virtually Wednesday with announcements of new experiences involving conversational artificial intelligence, graphics and multimedia, on-the-go interaction and skills discovery. Alexa engagements have quadrupled over the past two years, said Aaron Rubenson, vice president-Alexa Voice Service and skills. He said customers interact with Alexa “billions of times each week.” Rubenson said 90% percent of Alexa-enabled devices last year were built outside of Amazon, in TVs, speakers, thermostats, lights, garage doors, locks, headphones and smartwatches and others. He imagined a future of gaming with Alexa, including visuals on a Fire TV: Developers would build experiences allowing customers to speak naturally and handle conversational design patterns. The event previewed Alexa for Apps, which lets developers take customers into iOS and Android mobile apps, said Nedim Fresko, vice president-devices and developers. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has also been involved in cable programming, had a cameo in describing how he uses Alexa. Saying “Alexa, fire” triggers a script telling family what to do in case of a fire emergency, he said.