The California attorney general’s public forums to implement the state privacy law won’t be webcast, but the AG office plans to release “a transcript with comments,” a spokesperson said this week. The AG’s first forum on the 2018 law was Tuesday in San Francisco with five more planned this month and next across the state (see 1812200008).
Apple’s board is asking shareholders to reject a National Center for Public Policy Research proposal to disclose future board nominees’ “ideological perspectives,” along with their skills and experience, said a definitive proxy statement Tuesday at the SEC for Apple's March 1 annual meeting in Cupertino, California. The conservative think tank, which owns at least $2,000 worth of Apple stock, believes boards “that incorporate diverse perspectives can think more critically and oversee corporate managers more effectively,” said the proxy. There’s “ample evidence” that Apple, and the tech industry "generally," operate in "ideological hegemony that eschews conservative people, thoughts, and values,” it said. “This ideological echo chamber can result in groupthink that is the antithesis of diversity. This can be a major risk factor for shareholders.” Apple doesn’t “consider a nominee’s ideological perspectives to be relevant to the Board’s oversight role or the nominee’s ability to serve as an effective director," said the company in the proxy. Apple “considers a wide range of factors in assessing whether each nominee, and all nominees as a group, provides the background, experiences, and attributes necessary to effectively perform the Board’s oversight function,” it said.
A coalition focused on raising public awareness about automated vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems launched at CES Monday. Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE) is dedicated to educating drivers and policymakers on “the life-saving potential of these advancements,” said a release from member organization National Safety Council. The groups “believe in the promise of automated vehicle technology for enhanced mobility, improved sustainability and, above all, safety,” said NSC CEO Deborah Hersman. PAVE includes industry, nonprofit and academic members, among them AAA, CTA, Audi, Daimler, Toyota, the National Council on Aging, National Federation of the Blind and Waymo.
Sprint is launching a 5G 1.5-mile autonomous vehicle/technology test track in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, the telco announced Tuesday. Combined with Sprint Curiosity IoT and micropositioning, the Curiosity Lab will be built within a 500-acre tech park designed to test software for various transportation technologies.
AGC Networks completed the takeover of rival IT firm Black Box, with AGC saying Monday that taking it private adds about 3,000 employees and $600 million in annual revenue to AGC, which also provides cybersecurity. “In the immediate term, Black Box and its subsidiaries will continue to operate as is," said Sanjeev Verma, AGC and Black Box CEO.
Nearly 60 percent of Americans support police using facial recognition technology to find suspects if the software is correct 100 percent of the time, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported Monday. Top facial recognition technology is now at least 99.8 percent accurate, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported in November (see 1811210044). About 47 percent support the technology’s use for identifying suspects if it’s correct 90 percent of the time. About 54 percent of respondents disagreed government should strictly limit the technology “even if it means airports can’t use it to speed up security lines,” the survey found. An ITIF affiliate polled 3,151 U.S. adults online Dec. 13-16.
More than 5 million unencrypted passport numbers and about 2,000 unencrypted payment card numbers were exposed in Marriott’s recently disclosed breach (see 1812120034), the company said Friday. The hotel company decreased its original estimate of total guests affected from some 500 million to fewer than 383 million unique guests. The attack, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo linked to the Chinese government, included 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers and 20.3 million encrypted passport numbers, Marriott said. Compromised data included 8.6 million encrypted payment cards and potentially fewer than 2,000 unencrypted payment card numbers. There’s no evidence hackers accessed master encryption keys needed to decrypt the secure numbers, the hospitality company said. Marriott discontinued operation of its Starwood reservations database, which was compromised.
A quarter of U.S. broadband homes plan to buy a smart video doorbell in the next 12 months, but concerns over IoT privacy and security are hampering wider adoption, blogged Parks Associates Thursday. Paul Palmer, F-Secure global director-business development, said 68 percent of consumers are concerned about security and privacy of IoT devices, with 48 percent postponing buying IoT devices for that reason.
Global IoT spending is expected to rise 15.4 percent this year to $745 billion, reported IDC Thursday. IDC forecasts that worldwide IoT spending will surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2022. “Adoption of IoT is happening across industries, in governments, and in consumers' daily lives,” it said. “We are increasingly observing how data generated by connected devices is helping businesses run more efficiently, gain insight into business processes, and make real-time decisions. For consumers, access to data is changing how they are informed about the status of households, vehicles, and family members as well as their own health and fitness." Consumer IoT spending is expected to reach $108 billion in 2019, making it the second largest IoT industry segment behind manufacturing, said IDC: “The leading consumer use cases will be related to the smart home, personal wellness, and connected vehicle infotainment."
Facebook, Google and Twitter aren't liable for radicalization of ISIS-linked attackers behind the 2015 San Bernardino, California, mass shooting (see 1603280054), a federal judge ruled Monday, dismissing lawsuits from a group that included the victims’ relatives (docket 17-06894 in Pacer). Alleged “radicalization through exposure to online content does not establish the necessary direct relationship between the defendants’ conduct and the attacks on the victims,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ruled for U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The lawsuits can't be filed again because they were dismissed “with prejudice.” The plaintiffs alleged that online platforms “aided and abetted international terrorism and provided material support to international terrorists.”