A proposed private-public municipal broadband partnership in Tacoma, Washington, would include net neutrality and data privacy rules like those reversed at the federal level. The city is reviewing terms sheets with local private ISPs Rainier Connect and Wave Broadband for a partnership with one of the providers to operate the publicly owned Click Network. The Tacoma Public Utility Board voted to negotiate a contract with Rainier Connect; the City Council will review that decision, the city and utility said. “These proposals represent unprecedented private sector commitments to net neutrality, privacy, low-income affordability and non-transfer to entities with substantial market share,” said Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards (nonpartisan).
Potentially hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ passwords were exposed in plain text to employees, it announced Thursday. The passwords, exposed on internal data storage systems, weren't visible externally, there’s no evidence of abuse, and the issue was corrected, wrote Vice President-Engineering, Security and Privacy Pedro Canahuati. The company plans to notify “hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users,” who were potentially affected. The platform discovered the issue during a routine security review in January. “This caught our attention because our login systems are designed to mask passwords using techniques that make them unreadable,” Canahuati wrote.
The FTC is rescheduling due to logistical reasons Monday’s roundtable (see 1902130069) with state attorneys general, it said Wednesday.
The Supreme Court vacated and remanded a lower court’s decision upholding Google’s $8.5 million privacy settlement directed to charitable and academic organizations instead of alleged victims (see 1810310043). In an unsigned per curiam opinion Wednesday that didn't address the legality of cy pres settlements, the high court said the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should decide whether plaintiffs have standing to sue in light of Spokeo v. Robins. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying he would have reversed the settlement in the Stored Communications Act case because the class members received no benefit. The plaintiffs had standing because they were “seeking to vindicate a private right,” he wrote.
The White House launched AI.gov, for artificial intelligence strategic documents, fact sheets and agency programs and other materials. The website, which debuted Tuesday, details “policy accomplishments and initiatives,” emphasizing four areas: “AI for American Innovation, AI for American Industry, AI for the American Worker, and AI with American Values.”
Critics of the multibillion-dollar incentive package luring Amazon to build an HQ2 campus in Long Island City, Queens, cheered that New York would be better off after the tech giant scrapped the deal on Valentine’s Day (see 1902140054). But a Siena College poll found that wide swaths of New Yorkers of all stripes disagree. Siena pollsters canvassed 700 registered voters across the state by phone March 10-14, and found a 67-21 majority agreeing Amazon’s pullout was “bad for New York,” the pollster said Monday. Eighty-two percent of Republicans said they thought New York lost out when Amazon withdrew, compared with 65 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats. Though many progressive Democrats, including New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, led much of the local opposition that Amazon cited for pulling out, 56 percent of self-identified liberals said New York is worse off with the HQ2 project scrapped. That compared with 76 percent of conservatives and 69 percent of moderates. Meanwhile, the Arlington County, Virginia, Council last weekend OK’d $23 million in incentives for Amazon to build its Virginia HQ2 in Crystal City.
Lyft expects to price shares between $62 and $68 when they begin trading on the Nasdaq, it said in an amended SEC registration statement Monday. It plans to raise up to $2.2 billion in net proceeds from the 3.77-million-share initial public offering, $404.8 million of which it will use to pay off restricted-stock-unit “obligations,” said the filing. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani is Lyft’s largest individual shareholder with 13.5 percent, it said. General Motors, which invested $500 million in Lyft three years ago (see 1602030048), owns 7.76 percent, it said.
Five U.S. companies reached FTC settlements in 2018 over allegations they misled consumers about EU-U.S. Privacy Shield participation (see 1811190029), the agency reported Friday in its annual privacy and data security roundup. The agency shut revenge porn website MyEx.com (see 1806220040), got Venmo to stop “deceptive” privacy practices (see 1805240049), expanded a settlement with Uber (see 1810260040) and reached a pact with BLU Products (see 1809100052).
A General Motors application to produce up to 2,500 autonomous vehicles yearly is advancing to the Federal Register for comment, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Friday (see 1810040043). GM seeks a two-year waiver to build vehicles without steering wheels, foot pedals and other conventional automotive equipment. Nuro filed a separate application to build 2,500 automated delivery vehicles without requirements for rearview mirrors, a standard windshield and standard cameras for rear visibility.
DOJ’s Antitrust Division doesn’t “pick winners and losers,” but enforces the laws “equally to protect a level playing field,” Chief Makan Delrahim told the National Diversity Coalition Thursday. “Hard-nose competition ensures lower prices, increased innovation, higher quality goods and services, and improved opportunities for entrepreneurs,” said Delrahim. “When we see a large company try to buy its biggest competitor so that consumers can no longer compare the merits of one against the merits of another, we bring a lawsuit to block that.” If competitors collude to fix prices, “we bring a lawsuit to stop that anticompetitive conduct, and we bring criminal charges when the conspiracy warrants it,” he said. “If a company has succeeded to the point that it does not have much competition, we will bring a lawsuit if the company uses the advantages of its position to get in the way of companies that would otherwise be able to win customers on the merits and challenge the dominant player’s market position.”