The continued evolution of LTE is critical to the IoT's future, 5G Americas said Tuesday. Some forecast 20 billion connected things and $1 trillion in worldwide spending on the IoT by 2020, the report said: “IoT has arrived -- there are more connected devices worldwide than the global population.” But challenges remain. “The future-proofing and delivery of IoT becomes essential as networks transform from 4G to 5G,” said co-author Vicki Livingston, vice president-communications. “In 2019, we are seeing the early deployment of 5G networks,” she said: “However, LTE IoT will continue to evolve over coming years, leveraging the scale, longevity and global coverage of LTE networks and complement initial 5G New Radio deployments that focus on enhanced mobile broadband and high-performance IoT.”

Organizations that are working with artificial intelligence have, on average, four such projects in place, said a Gartner report Monday. It canvassed 106 information technology “professionals,” and found 59 percent said their companies already have AI “deployed today,” it said. “We see a substantial acceleration in AI adoption this year,” said Gartner. “The rising number of AI projects means that organizations may need to reorganize internally to make sure that AI projects are properly staffed and funded.” Respondents said their organizations expect to add six more AI projects in the next 12 months, and another 15 within the next three years, said Gartner. Improving the customer experience was the “top motivator” for deploying AI, it said. A lack of skilled staff was top deployment challenge, cited by 59 percent of respondents, it said. “Finding the right staff skills is a major concern whenever advanced technologies are involved. Skill gaps can be addressed using service providers, partnering with universities, and establishing training programs for existing employees.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai named members of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council VII, Monday, before its introductory meeting Friday. “CSRIC’s first meeting will introduce members of the Council and announce the topics that CSRIC VII will consider and address,” a public notice said. Pai appointed Charlotte Field, senior vice president at Charter Communications, chair. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. A list of other members is in the personals section of this publication.

The FTC approved a roughly $5 billion privacy-related settlement with Facebook in a 3-2 party line vote, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. That amount is toward the higher end of Facebook’s projected settlement (see 1904240064). DOJ’s Civil Division is reportedly reviewing the settlement. The FTC declined comment. DOJ and the company didn’t comment. The fine is a fraction of the company’s annual revenue and won’t make executives think twice about protecting user data, said House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I. The apparent “slap-on-the-wrist” settlement shows Congress needs to investigate the FTC’s “wanton disregard” for its duties, said Freedom From Facebook co-chair Sarah Miller. Congress and state attorneys general should handle any antitrust probe of the platform, she said. The reported deal is a “capstone” for the agency’s failure to police privacy, said Open Markets Institute Director-Enforcement Sally Hubbard. The reported fine itself isn’t sufficient without business model and practices remedies, said Public Knowledge Competition Policy Counsel Charlotte Slaiman. Public Citizen called for “structural reforms and substantive terms to protect user privacy.”

Google is investigating violations to data security policies following leaks of confidential data by a language reviewer, Product Manager David Monsees blogged Thursday. Google partners with global language experts who understand nuances and accents of a specific language to review and transcribe “a small set of queries” to better understand languages, which Monsees called a critical part of building speech technology necessary to products like Google Assistant. The company learned that one of the reviewers violated Google policy by “leaking confidential Dutch audio data,” he said, and the company is conducting a review of its safeguards “prevent misconduct like this from happening again.” Language experts review about 0.2 percent of all audio snippets, which are “are not associated with user accounts as part of the review process,” Monsees said. Reviewers are directed not to transcribe background conversations or other noises, and only to transcribe snippets that are directed to Google, he said. He added that the voice assistant only sends audio to Google after a Google Assistant-enabled device detects a user is interacting with it by saying “Hey Google” or by physically triggering the Google Assistant. Monsees acknowledged that “rarely, devices that have the Google Assistant built in may experience what we call a 'false accept,'" interpreting other words or noises to be the wake word. Protections are in place to “prevent false accepts from occurring in your home,” he said. Consumers concerned about privacy can turn off storing audio data to their Google accounts completely or choose to auto-delete data every three or 18 months, he said.

Comments are due Aug. 9 on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s draft cybersecurity white paper concerning blockchain technology, the agency announced Tuesday. The paper outlines “standards, building blocks, and system architectures that support emerging blockchain-based identity management systems and selective disclosure mechanisms.”

The White House’s coming summit on Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias (see 1906260070) seems like an attempt to intimidate companies into bending to the administration’s will, said Computer & Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black Wednesday. Social media sites shouldn’t be forced to be neutral on hate or religious intolerance, he said: “If those airing grievances at this week’s meeting are unsatisfied with one company’s policy against objectionable content, there are plenty of competitors from which to choose.”

Facebook had a 50 percent increase in women in technical positions, now at 23 percent, in the past five years and a 42 percent increase in women holding senior leadership positions, to 33 percent. Blacks holding senior leadership and technical positions increased 50 percent to, respectively, 3.1 percent and 1.5 percent since 2014, the company reported Tuesday. Overall, the number of minorities at the company increased from 43 percent to 56 percent, with Asians as the largest minority group. Global Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams cited its initiatives and partnerships. Facebook employs more than 35,000, quadrupled from 2014, says Statista.

Seventy-nine percent of U.S. broadband homes worry about data security and privacy issues, blogged Parks Associates Tuesday. Roughly 35 percent of U.S broadband households faced a data security problem -- including identity theft, data theft or a virus or spyware infection -- in the past 12 months. “Many consumers do not trust companies with their data, nor do they believe they receive adequate value for sharing their data,” said analyst Lindsay Gafford: They'll be more comfortable with connected products when security protections are built in and companies are “more transparent about how they collect and use” their data.

President Donald Trump can't block Twitter users from his official account, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, upholding U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued Trump for blocking users from @realDonaldTrump after they criticized him (see 1806050068). The White House claimed the account was a personal one. The 2nd Circuit disagreed, saying the account and “webpage associated with it bear all the trappings of an official, state-run account.” The opinion, by Judge Barrington Parker on behalf of himself, Christopher Droney and Peter Hall, called the account “one of White House’s main vehicles for conducting official business.” The First Amendment “does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise-open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees,” it said. The White House referred us to DOJ, which said it's exploring possible next steps. “As we argued, President Trump’s decision to block users from his personal twitter account does not violate the First Amendment,” said a spokesperson.