The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia should deny the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s motion to intervene in U.S. v. Facebook because it doesn’t satisfy the requirements for intervention, the U.S. government filed (in Pacer) Monday (see 1907260024). DOJ filed the document with the FTC, which settled with the company for $5 billion over alleged data privacy violations. Facebook joined in opposition, saying EPIC doesn’t have a legally protected interest in a case that concerns only the government and the company. EPIC has no Article III standing, can’t satisfy the Rule 24(a) factors and hasn’t identified any injury, the government argued. Even if injury were identified, EPIC can’t show that the court would deliver a better deal for consumers, DOJ said. The settlement "is not adequate, reasonable, or appropriate,” said EPIC.
The FTC should investigate itself for potential false and deceptive advertising about the Equifax settlement, the Demand Progress Education Fund wrote the agency Monday. The FTC led consumers to believe they could collect $125 as part of the settlement, but in reality the deal didn’t include enough money for all consumers to collect, wrote Executive Director David Segal: “The FTC should fine itself enough to ensure that all those impacted by the breach, and the false advertising related to the attendant settlement, receive the full $125 for which the FTC made them believe they were eligible.” The agency declined comment.
Federal privacy legislation with key provisions from laws in Europe and California “could cost the U.S. economy about $122 billion per year,” the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported Monday. That amount was calculated based on expenses for data protection officers, privacy audits, data infrastructure and other expected line items, ITIF said.
Facebook failed to detail exact plans for protecting data privacy for Libra users (see 1907180055), FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra and six privacy regulators wrote Monday. Joining Chopra were EU Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli, U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien, Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk, Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner Besnik Dervishi and Burkina Faso Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties President Marguerite Ouedraogo Bonane. The group asked how the Libra Association plans to apply consistent privacy standards across its network, and specifics about data collection and sharing.
Next year Android users in Europe will be able to choose various search providers when setting up their smartphones, Google Product Management Director Paul Gennai wrote Friday. The change was made to comply with the European Commission’s recent competition decision on Android.
Average revenue per user for standalone pay-TV service declined 10 percent from 2016 to 2018 to $76, blogged Parks Associates Thursday. Consumers’ self-reported spend on non-pay-TV home video entertainment dropped 30 percent per month over the past seven years to just over $20 at the end of 2018, after peaking at nearly $40 in 2014, Parks said. Spending on packaged video media has steadily declined since 2012; movie theater spending fell by 50 percent from 2014 to 2018, it said, while spending on internet video is the only category to hold steady since 2014 at $8-$9 per month. With subscription online video the only growth category for consumer-paid video entertainment beyond pay TV, operators are taking different approaches to leverage the trend, said analyst Brett Sappington. Comcast and Dish are offering subscriptions to third-party over-the-top video services and integrating them into their interfaces to serve as content aggregators; others, including AT&T and Dish, are expanding their online reach, introducing virtual MVPD services, Sappington said. Twenty percent of U.S. broadband households don’t have pay-TV service, said Parks.
Tech entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang criticized Amazon and the role artificial intelligence is going to play in workforce displacement during a Wednesday debate with former Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Commerce Committee member Kamala Harris of California and seven other candidates. The debate was otherwise almost completely devoid of tech and telecom policy mentions. A Tuesday debate included several policy focuses, with Senate Commerce member and 2020 Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota saying rural broadband will be a top priority in her $1 trillion infrastructure proposal (see 1907310035). “Amazon is closing 30 percent of America's stores and malls and paying zero in taxes while doing it,” Yang said Wednesday. Amazon has been a target for Democratic candidates' ire during all four debates this year (see 1906270010 and 1906280053). Yang later warned AI is “going to displace hundreds of thousands of call center workers, truck drivers, the most common jobs in the United States.” Biden said he wouldn't seek to have the U.S. rejoin the original version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which in part deals with digital issues, but instead would seek to renegotiate. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from TPP in 2017 (see 1701240047). Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, invoked the 2018 false missile alert in Hawaii during her closing statement to highlight her objections to Trump's foreign policy priorities. Gabbard didn't mention the push for legislation, like the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (Alert) Act, to address perceived weaknesses in the wireless emergency alert system (see 1904240033).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is collecting public comments through Sept. 30 on draft cybersecurity feature recommendations for IoT devices, the agency announced Thursday. The draft offers six recommended security features for manufacturers to build into IoT devices: identification, configuration, data protection, logical access to interfaces, software and firmware updates, and cybersecurity event logging. NIST plans an Aug. 13 workshop on the issue.
Online platform data collection practices, market power and content liability protections make it harder for artists to control their own work and make a living, the Artist Rights Alliance wrote Congress and antitrust enforcers Wednesday. Citing Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, the group asked officials to consider creator concerns as they investigate the industry. The group wrote the letter to the House Antitrust Subcommittee, DOJ Antitrust Division and the FTC.
The average American nets about $32,000 annually from free online services, said an Internet Association report Wednesday. That includes benefits from “search, email, maps, video, e-commerce, social media, messaging and music,” IA said. The amount was based on how much a person would “need to be paid to give up a service.”