Investigate “deceptive and misleading” location-tracking practices of Android users by Google, more than 75 consumer groups wrote the FTC Tuesday. Citing a Norwegian Consumer Council report, the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) claimed Google “manipulates and nudges users” into constant tracking via location history and activity online and through apps, which is applied across all Google accounts and violates the EU’s general data protection regulation. Among claims: users are pushed into location history tracking without knowing, misled about the extent of data collection, and default settings are hidden. TACD includes the Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Privacy Information Center. A Google spokesperson emailed that location history is turned off by default, and users can edit, delete or pause it. If paused, depending on individual settings, the company might collect and use location data to “improve your Google experience,” the spokesperson said: “We’re constantly working to improve our controls, and we'll be reading this report closely to see if there are things we can take on board.” The FTC received the letter, its spokesperson said.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology released for comment by Jan. 11 draft cybersecurity guidelines for cloud computing. NIST seeks feedback any “gaps” in the draft.
Recent FTC comments to NTIA unfairly favor corporate interests concerning opt-in data privacy proposals, 15 consumer and privacy groups wrote the commission Monday. The FTC cited “unintended consequences” of deploying an opt-in model, which would require users to authorize data collection, citing an advertising industry survey (see 1811130058). The FTC should have taken a “broader look at the evidence, rather than relying on a self-serving study by one stakeholder,” the groups wrote. They included Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center and Public Knowledge. The FTC didn’t comment.
Top facial recognition technology is now at least 99.8 percent accurate, signaling “massive gains” for the technology in the past five years, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported Wednesday. Error rates are below 0.2 percent for the most accurate algorithms analyzing quality portrait photos in galleries of more than 12 million people, said the report. Microsoft was among the top performers.
A glitch that led to Amazon exposing customer email addresses wasn't a breach of its website or its systems, an Amazon spokesman emailed us Wednesday. “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted,” he said. A technical error caused the website to inadvertently disclose email addresses and names, he said, and Amazon emailed those customers Tuesday informing them of the issue, advising caution. The spokesman didn’t respond to our questions on the number of addresses affected or the cause of the error.
Nuance Communications will spin off its automotive voice-control business as a separate publicly traded company in late 2019 and “wind down” its subscription revenue services and consumer device operations because they're “non-core” to Nuance’s artificial intelligence “strengths” in “conversational AI solutions,” said CEO Mark Benjamin on an earnings call. The company will manage royalty contracts in consumer devices “and seek opportunities to monetize IP and source code in one-time deals,” he said Monday. Its voice and virtual assistance technology for car infotainment and communication systems is in more than 50 million new cars yearly “and can be found in more than 200 million cars,” said Benjamin.
Expect the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Apple in a case deciding whether customers, not just app developers, can sue for antitrust damages (see 1811050033), Cowen analyst Paul Gallant said Tuesday. The court under Chief Justice John Roberts historically has been pro-business, and the solicitor general sided with Apple in this case, Gallant said. Oral argument is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.
Carriers didn’t respond substantively to a reconsideration petition by Smart Communities and Special Districts Coalition, the coalition replied Monday in docket 17-84. Verizon’s 29 pages violated the FCC’s 25-page limit for oppositions for recon petitions, while NCTA and NTCA failed to serve the group with their oppositions as required, the local group added. Broadband interests last week opposed the coalition’s request to revisit an FCC August decision that included pre-empting local moratoriums on broadband deployment (see 1811130048). CTIA and Verizon “merely reiterate the same conclusions already adopted by the Commission and often cite solely to the Ruling being challenged here as sole support for those assertions,” the coalition said.
The FTC finalized settlements over allegations IDmission, mResource, SmartStart Employment Screening and VenPath “falsely claimed certification under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework” (see 1809270057), the agency said Monday. Commissioners voted 4-0-1, with Christine Wilson recused because she didn’t participate when the agency sought comment.
BlackBerry's buying artificial intelligence cybersecurity company Cylance for $1.4 billion cash in BlackBerry's biggest deal adds AI expertise to secure more devices, executives at both companies said Friday. BlackBerry can use the technology in its products, said CEO John Chen Friday. The deal is expected to close by Feb. 28. Cylance technologies require “a minimum amount of code, resulting in us using less memory and power ... a very key point going forward for our smart platform,” he said. The companies' vision "is to secure and connect every endpoint,” said Cylance CEO Stuart McClure. Humans still have a cybersecurity role, though. If an attack should “bypass” Cylance’s AI, it's “the human’s job to understand what happened, how it was bypassed, and what new features or characteristics we need to train the machines on,” he said.