FCC Chairman Ajit Pai drew attention to a “heartbreaking” New York Times report that the amount of online child sex abuse material doubled 2017-2018. “Very hard but important reading,” Pai tweeted Monday. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said, “This is sickening.”

CalAmp CEO Michael Burdiek “would anticipate” his company’s new Sprint IoT “strategic partnership” agreement will “survive” T-Mobile/Sprint, he said on a fiscal Q2 call Thursday “There would be no reason for it not to.” CalAmp will supply Sprint “intelligent telematics” devices and “device-as-a-service” (DaaS) subscription services. It's a telematics “resell arrangement,” and will “expand Sprint's broad range of connected car, fleet and asset management services,” said Burdiek. Sprint “was really keen” on the DaaS program, “because they see it as a way to lower friction for customer adoption” of telematics services, he said.

Dunkin’ Donuts failed to tell nearly 20,000 customers their accounts were compromised in a 2015 cyberattack, alleged New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) in a lawsuit Thursday. Tens of thousands of dollars from customer “DD” card accounts were stolen after the company failed to take reasonable safeguards to protect the data, said James. The company didn’t notify the customers or reset their accounts to end unauthorized access, she alleged. The company didn't investigate, which would have helped “it determine which other accounts had been compromised, what customer information had been acquired, and whether customer funds had been stolen,” she said. The company didn’t comment.

The FTC sued the owner of Match.com Wednesday, alleging it “used fake love interest” ads to trick hundreds of thousands of users into buying subscriptions. Match.com owner Match Group also owns Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish and other dating services. “Match.com conned people into paying for subscriptions via messages the company knew were from scammers,” said Consumer Protection Bureau Director Andrew Smith. Match users can create free accounts, but a paid subscription is required to reply to messages. Match called the allegations “completely meritless.” The agency “misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data to make outrageous claims and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these claims in court,” it said.

The U.S. and Japan reached two agreements to “rebalance trade,” said the White House Wednesday. One of the deals “includes robust commitments on digital trade, which will greatly expand commerce across our modern industries,” it said. A second calls for Japan to open its markets to about $7 billion in U.S. agricultural exports, it said. Talks will continue “in the months ahead” toward a “final, comprehensive trade deal,” it said. Tech groups welcomed the digital trade accord. Along with the digital and e-commerce rules in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade, "this agreement with Japan now makes the two strongest trade agreements in U.S. history for digital trade and cross-border data flows," said CTA. "At a time when every company is essentially a tech company, it’s critical to have a new standard for global rules that ensures American innovation can thrive across borders.” Japan is America’s fourth-largest digital trading partner, “and this agreement enshrines key rules of the road from our shared digital framework,” said the Internet Association: “Digital trade benefits businesses of all sizes in every sector, and this agreement will only grow the $38 billion in digital trade between our two countries.” The “first-stage” U.S.-Japan agreement on digital trade is “a positive step toward solidifying international norms that ensure that global markets remain fair, open, and competitive in the modern economy,” said the Information Technology Industry Council. A future comprehensive U.S.-Japan trade agreement "would help to partially fill the void left by the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership," said the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

BlackBerry’s recent announcement of an intelligent-vehicles partnership with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) “demonstrates our thought leadership in the automotive software market,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen on a fiscal Q2 call Tuesday. BlackBerry agreed to supply the automaker with “cybersecurity consulting” services through the artificial intelligence-based security capability it acquired when it bought Cylance for $1.4 billion (see 1811160024). The JLR partnership gives BlackBerry “the opportunity to provide the first cybersecurity platform for the auto market,” said Chen. “JLR is the first to collaborate with us.” BlackBerry is working with others in the automotive industry, and the potential for additional collaborations “looks promising,” he said. The company plans to demonstrate the “combined” BlackBerry/Cylance cybersecurity solution at CES, he said. “We have a great opportunity to gain share in this $11-billion-plus end-point security market currently led by legacy antivirus vendors. The collective market share for all the next-generation end-point security players, which includes Cylance, is currently less than 10 percent, so there’s lots of room to grow there."

Policymakers should be aware that existing law already applies to artificial intelligence activity, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Monday. Written by the chamber’s Technology Engagement Center and Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation, the document offers 10 principles for governing AI use and regulation. It recognizes the need to build public trust in AI development, risk-based approaches to AI governance, public-private investment in research, the need for an “AI-ready” workforce, the promotion of open and accessible government data and “robust and flexible” privacy regimes. It also supports intellectual property frameworks that protect innovation, a commitment to cross-border data flow and the need for following international standards.

The introduction of Amazon Music HD last week (see 1909180028) typifies recent hardware and streaming developments that could be “stepping-stones towards mainstream adoption” of hi-res audio, blogged Futuresource Consulting on Friday. The growth of wireless speakers, “notably driven by Amazon,” is another potential market invigorator, it said. The components required to “fully benefit” from hi-res audio “have been significantly simplified, now incorporating all the required audio components into a single device,” said Futuresource. Spotify and Apple Music “could also follow Amazon’s move into high-quality streaming,” though Spotify has “consistently rejected the idea,” it said. Apple “could benefit from the synergy of its in-house cloud storage service to have lower hosting and delivery cost,” it said. Futuresource canvassed smart-speaker owners in 2019's first half, and half said they want products “with better sound quality than they currently own, indicating the strong potential for upsell and upgrades,” it said.

The FTC heard concern YouTube could become a "desert of crap" without interest-based advertising, said Consumer Protection Bureau Director Andrew Smith Monday. The agency is collecting comments, due Oct. 23, as it reviews the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see 1907250051). Staff has heard that the inability to engage in interest-based advertising on YouTube could make content creation uneconomic for certain creators of high-quality content, he said at a Better Business Bureau National Advertising Division conference. The loss of high quality child-oriented content on general audience platforms like YouTube “because of the operation of our rule would concern us,” he said. Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester said Smith should recuse himself from the COPPA review, claiming bias in favor of industry: “I am shocked at Mr. Smith's bias here in favor of allowing digital marketers to collect more data from kids. That’s before he has heard experts invited to speak on Oct. 7 as well as written comments submitted for the record.” There’s “no bias, and no prejudgment,” Smith told us. The remarks in New York were meant to spur interest in the upcoming workshop and issues under consideration, including widely reported comments from content creators, he said. The agency welcomes input from CDD, he said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is gathering comment on its zero trust architecture draft publication until Nov. 22, it announced Monday.