Facebook will no longer suggest to users which friends to tag in photos via face-scanning technology, the social network announced Tuesday. So-called “tag suggestions” has been at the center of a lawsuit involving alleged facial recognition technology abuses (see 1908080056). The platform’s “face recognition” technology will now be available to all users with the ability to opt out, Facebook said. That feature allows users to be notified when their photos are used by other people.
Critics of some ways tech can target kids found nothing to like in a potential FTC settlement with YouTube. “Once again, this FTC appears to have let a powerful company off the hook with a nominal fine for violating users’ privacy online,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. He's disappointed the settlement is reportedly on a party-line commissioner basis. In that scenario, Google would pay $150 million-$200 million over allegations YouTube violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (see 1906250061). It would be "a nominal fine," Markey tweeted Friday. Under COPPA, the commission "had authority to impose tens of billions in fines ... for YouTube’s improper corporate surveillance of children, targeted advertising to kids and failure to alert parents," said Public Citizen. The FTC and Google declined to comment.
The Federal Election Commission plans an event Sept. 17 on digital disinformation. FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub is co-hosting it with the Global Digital Policy Incubator at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center and PEN America, an FEC spokesperson said Thursday. She didn't have further details. Facebook will participate, a spokesperson said. So, too, will Twitter, its spokesperson said. Weintraub reportedly also asked Google to participate. The company didn't comment, nor did PEN or Stanford.
PayPal should change its Venmo payment service’s privacy settings, urged Mozilla and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in an open letter Wednesday. “Make transactions private by default and give users privacy settings for their friend lists.” With users unable to hide their friend lists, “anyone can uncover who you pay regularly, creating a public record of your personal and professional community,” EFF said. The company didn’t comment.
ICANN wants input on how to improve its multistakeholder model. Tuesday's consultation, which closes Oct. 14, seeks comment on what next steps would improve effectiveness. The exercise will lead to the development of a work plan, which will map the work to be done 2021-2025, and will consider: What issues will be addressed; who will take charge of developing a solution or approach to each issue; when the task owner will deliver a proposed solution/approach; and what resources will be needed. The completed plan will be part of ICANN's five-year operating plan, due out for comment next year. ICANN will host a Sept. 11-12 webinar on the consultation document. Issues under discussion include work prioritization; efficient use of resources; culture and trust; and improving openness, inclusivity, accountability and transparency.
Qualcomm is demonstrating four new networking platforms at its Wi-Fi 6 event in San Francisco designed for densely congested networks, onboarding of hundreds of devices without degradation of user experience, and high performance, it said Tuesday. The platforms leverage all the elements of Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6 feature implementation but differ by format, scale of application and computing profile. Netgear's Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh system, based on Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6 technology, delivers “significantly enhanced capacity, coverage and simultaneous multi-user performance” via dedicated tri-band support with quad stream radios for all the three Wi-Fi bands, said David Henry, Netgear senior vice president-connected home product.
Though Thursday’s post-U.S. market announcement that HP President-CEO Dion Weisler will depart to tend to a “family health matter” surprised some (see 1908220066), Weisler indicated on a fiscal Q3 call Thursday his decision was in the works for a while. Enrique Lores, president of HP’s imaging, printing and solutions, becomes CEO when Weisler steps down in November. The board picked Lores as Weisler’s successor “after a thorough review and careful consideration of a full bench of external and internal candidates,” said Weisler. “I rest easy knowing that the company I love is in the best of hands with Enrique.” The stock closed 5.9 percent lower Friday at $17.81. HP didn't comment on how long the board's CEO search process took or when Weisler informed the board that he was leaving. Priority 1 for Lores will be “simplifying” HP’s “operating model” by “driving significant improvement in our cost structure,” said Lores. “Our end objective is to create a more digitally enabled customer-centric organization.” Customers are “rapidly changing,” and the company must adapt by becoming a “more agile organization,” he said.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing Thursday in a lawsuit (in Pacer) alleging Facebook violated a federal robotexting law. The three-judge panel unanimously rejected the petition in Duguid v. Facebook. The case is a class-action lawsuit led by Noah Duguid, a Montana resident, who in 2014 claimed he repeatedly received unwanted text messages from Facebook.
IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab elevated transparency guidelines for digital advertising compliance under the EU general data protection regulation, they announced. This version “expands the consent string to now include ‘transparency’ features including publisher controls and additional flexibility for vendors,” IAB said.
NTIA will host a broadband workshop Sept. 27 in Reno, as part of its Broadband USA program, said a notice for Wednesday's Federal Register. The open meeting will be 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Lawlor Events Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.