Facebook suspended tens of thousands of apps from some 400 developers Friday in an investigation related to its Cambridge Analytica privacy breach. The company analyzed millions of apps, and the investigation is ongoing, said Vice President-Product Partnerships Ime Archibong. Many apps were in their “testing phase,” or didn’t respond to requests for information, he said. Others were banned “completely,” he said. Reasons for the latter included “inappropriately sharing data obtained from us, making data publicly available without protecting people’s identity or something else that was in clear violation of our policies.” The FTC should investigate the app developers, said Future of Privacy Forum CEO Jules Polonetsky: “If apps that misuse Facebook members’ data escape legal penalty, developers will get the message that there is no legal risk to improper data-sharing. Every company, and especially app developers, needs to understand that there are consequences for abusing consumer data.” The agency declined comment.

Satellite interests want changes to the FCC's proposed $950 million allocation of second-round USF funding to strengthen broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. Award criteria for the Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund and the USVI Funds are flawed, Hughes said in meetings with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O'Rielly, and with Wireless Bureau staff, per docket 18-143 postings Thursday (see here, here and here): Determining satellite isn't resilient technology is incorrect, since if the ground equipment is off island, it's by nature resilient. Hughes said the agency should include in bid evaluation the time it takes to deploy. It urged scoring that would give up to 20 points for 100 percent buildout within two years and fewer or no points for longer. The Coalition to Fund CPR membership, building a satellite-based model for emergency telecom services on the island, said the FCC should include locally based satellite communications facilities in restoration funding. It said funding should include new entrants with new technology, and allowing independent community-based emergency telecom networks to participate. The coalition said membership includes Tech Latina, National Puerto Rican Agenda, Ibero American Action League and Foundation for a Better Puerto Rico. Virgin Islands ISP Broadband VI argued against changing criteria for resiliency and redundancy, saying no data in the record supported doing so, and against applying a point reduction for backup power at customer premises in competing applications going through a brief public comment period. Commissioners vote at their Sept. 26 public meeting (see 1909040073).

SiriusXM, seven months into its Pandora ownership (see 1901300019), is “just digging in” on reversing the decline in Pandora listener hours, CEO Jim Meyer told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference Tuesday. “It’s going to take work,” said Meyer. “It’s a solvable problem and I'm confident we’re going to get at it, but we’re going to have to stay at it and work at it.” Total Pandora listener hours declined nearly 6 percent in the three years before SiriusXM bought the streaming service (see 1903120026). The “root cause” of the decline is “all the other places you can go get free music,” said Meyer. “We, first and foremost, have to make our product better, and we have some interesting things coming later this fall that I think makes the app functionally better and makes it easier to find content within the app.” As Pandora “fought its way through significant financial issues,” what likely “suffered the most was investment in the brand, and we’re looking at a lot of different ways to be smart about attacking that,” he said. Reversing the decline, though “solvable,” is “not an easy problem” to fix, he said. Investors will need “to be patient with us as we work through it,” he said.

Online platforms should screen their employees for any association with hate groups, advocates wrote Facebook, Google and Twitter executives Tuesday. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Color of Change, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Muslim Advocates and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund signed. They also urged “strong corporate accountability,” identifying executives responsible for content decisions and civil rights audits.

ICANN will audit registrars for possible domain name system security threats, after publication of a report on how well registries are addressing such concerns, it said Tuesday. Under agreements with ICANN, registry operators must periodically assess whether domains in their generic top-level domains (gTLD) are being used to perpetrate security threats such as phishing, malware and botnets. Registries must keep statistical reports on threats identified and actions taken to counter them. The November-June audit said most registries "undertake significant efforts” to address DNS security, going beyond obligations. The prevalence of DNS security threats is "concentrated in a relatively small number" of registries, and the frequency of abuse appears to be lower in some types of new gTLDs, it said. The audit said "dialogue between Registries and ICANN org is needed to develop a shared understanding" of registry obligations. About 5 percent of audited registries subject to the contract provision failed to perform any monitoring despite having domains registered in their gTLDs, with threat remediation needed, it said.

Congress should pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation for a national standard reflecting American values, the Internet Association said Tuesday. IA’s new campaign seeks privacy protections that enable user control over data regardless of industry and location. IA urged legislation that allows users to access, correct, delete and download data. Fight for the Future Deputy Director Evan Greer accused Silicon Valley of trying to get “Congress to pass a law that lets them continue harvesting and abusing our sensitive data” and override state laws like those in California (see 1909160045): “We need real data privacy protections that guard against discrimination, allow people to sue tech companies that misuse their data, and don’t pre-empt state laws.” Also Tuesday, the Internet Society’s (ISOC) Online Trust Alliance reported most companies and organizations it studied don’t comply with international privacy regulations and aren’t “prepared for new US regulations rolling out in 2020.” About 98 percent have privacy statements with language about data sharing, and 67 percent said they don’t share data with third parties. Less than 1 percent “had language stating which types of third parties could access user data,” the group said. ISOC said it analyzed 1,200 privacy statements from organizations.

Blockchain technology could “fundamentally change the way government and industry conduct business,” but fraud, money laundering and energy concerns remain, GAO reported Monday. The technology could increase transparency and in turn curb corruption, GAO said. Other opportunities: reduced labor costs, improved data quality and reliability, and wide applicability. Security and blocking outside access are challenges, the government's own watchdog said. It cited lack of regulation and potential for less transparency.

EU and U.S. officials agree on the need for “strong and credible” privacy enforcement to protect citizens and “ensure trust in the digital economy,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and EU Commissioner-Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova Friday. Senior U.S. and EU officials met in Washington Thursday and Friday, launching the third annual joint review of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (see 1909110037). The European Commission is expected to soon publish its annual PS report.

Closing the digital divide should move beyond talk of infrastructure to finding out why so many passed by broadband don't adopt it, said an opinion in Friday's Washington Post by Brookings Institution's Blair Levin and Larry Downes of Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy. Those without home internet are "predominantly poorer, older and less educated Americans," demographics found more often in cities than rural areas, they said. Convincing those without broadband it’s relevant is the key challenge, they said.

Transparency about use of personal data the health tech industry collects from consumers is among hallmarks of “voluntary privacy guidelines” CTA released Thursday, it said. It created them through consensus from among a “wide range” of member companies, said the association. “The principles cover the collection, use and sharing of data generated from personal health and wellness devices, apps, websites and other digital tools,” it said. They're meant as “baseline recommendations,” said the principles. “We want companies to retain flexibility on how to implement the Principles so they can account for differences in technology, products, and services. We also want companies to preserve control over how they communicate with their consumers.”