Democracy for America and RootsAction.org joined Freedom from Facebook, a campaign urging the FTC to break up Facebook’s “monopoly” (see 1805210051 and 1807090014). The Open Markets Institute, Public Citizen, Demand Progress, the Content Creators Coalition and the Communications Workers of America previously joined. “It’s absolutely critical that the FTC responds to the national Facebook privacy crisis by breaking up the company, recognizing its violation of its consent decree, and imposing strong privacy rules on the Facebook platform,” said Democracy for America Chairman Jim Dean Tuesday. The FTC didn’t comment.

The FTC announced a new model timing agreement for Bureau of Competition merger reviews, which dictates investigation milestone timelines. The model timing agreement means parties “agree not to close the proposed transaction until 60 to 90 calendar days following certification of substantial compliance with the Second Request [Request for Additional Information and Documentary Material] depending on the complexity of the competition issues raised by the deal,” Competition Chief Bruce Hoffman blogged Tuesday. The model also requires parties to “provide 30 calendar days’ notice before certifying substantial compliance with the Second Request, and 30 calendar days’ notice before consummating the proposed transaction,” Hoffman said.

U.S. cybersecurity defense isn't keeping pace with enemy capability, and to catch up the private sector must collaborate with the government by sharing data in real time, said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in a commentary Monday for CNBC. DHS is promoting collaborative efforts through its new National Risk Management Center (see 1807310052). Nielsen described the center as an “initiative driven by industry needs and focused on fostering a better way to bring government and the private sector together to defend our nation's” critical infrastructure. “In an era when our digital enemies are crowd-sourcing attacks, we must crowd-source our response,” she said, arguing the U.S. is in crisis mode.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said private investment unleashed from regulation is the best way to promote broadband deployment. "The free market, not bureaucracy, should pick winners and losers," he said at the Resurgent conference in Austin. "In the absence of heavy-handed regulation, private-sector broadband providers invested over $1.5 trillion in networks over the course of 20 years." The FCC had rules "demanding that companies maintain their fading copper networks," he said. "Every dollar that a company spends propping up copper is a dollar that can’t be spent building a next-generation, IP-based network. We voted to get rid of these perverse rules, enabling investment in the networks of the past to be used on the networks of the future." He concluded, "Whenever a technological innovation creates uncertainty, some will always have the knee-jerk reaction to presume it’s bad. They’ll demand that we do whatever’s necessary to maintain the status quo. Strangle it with a study. Call for a commission. Bemoan those supposedly left behind. Stipulate absolute certainty. Regulate new services with the paradigms of old. But we should resist that temptation. 'Guilty until proven innocent' is not a recipe for innovation ... History tells us that it is not preemptive regulation, but permissionless innovation made possible by competitive free markets that best guarantees consumer welfare."

The IoT sensors market is forecast to reach $22.5 billion by 2023, up from $5.28 billion by year-end 2018, reported Marketsandmarkets Thursday. Drivers include increased use of sensors in IoT devices, plummeting costs, technological advancements, introduction of 3rd Generation Partnership Project Release 13 and Release 14 specifications, rising demand for connected devices and wearables and a need for real-time computing in IoT applications, it said.

Though Tesla didn’t keep the promise CEO Elon Musk made a year ago to complete its first “coast-to-coast” autonomous drive using Autopilot last year (see 1708030018), the automaker has that capability for demonstrations, he said on a Wednesday evening earnings call. If Tesla were to “pick a specific route and then write code to really make that route work, we could do a coast-to-coast route drive, but that would be kind of gaming the system,” said Musk. He doesn’t want to take the team away from building on the “fundamental safety of the existing features.” It's teaching Autopilot to “do things like recognize traffic lights and stop signs and make hard right turns and that kind of thing, but it's not at the safety level that's considered OK for release,” he said. After quarterly results, the stock Thursday closed up 16 percent at $349.54.

Sonos shares closed at $19.91 Thursday, a 24 percent increase from the opening price on its first day public. The company whose board includes ex-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski had targeted $17-$19 to raise $264 million (see 1807230060). Competition is rising, including from the companies whose content and voice control platforms Sonos is relying on to carry it into the next voice control age of audio. It cited as a risk factor dependency on companies including Amazon and Apple, saying success with voice control increasingly will depend on willingness of technology partners with more financial resources to continue to promote and enhance Sonos products, "many of which sell or may develop products that compete with ours.” Senior Vice President-Product Marketing and Collaborations Allen Mask downplayed that risk with us Thursday, saying Sonos views itself as complementary to Amazon, Apple and Google. “Big tech companies have a very different core business than ours,” with Sonos standing apart as an open system with “freedom of choice,” he said. “We welcome all voice assistants, we welcome all streaming services, we welcome companies to build on top of our platform.” The newly public company outsources most manufacturing to contract manufacturer Inventec, which makes products for the company and its competitors at facilities in China. Tariff threats (see 1808020067) are "top of mind for us, as it is for everybody across the consumer electronics industry,” Mask told us. Sonos is “not happy about the discussions being had." The company is working with CTA to combat the proposed tariffs, and Mask noted “if and when tariffs come down, we feel hopeful.” The “premium nature” of the brand should leave the company less exposed so it’s not affected materially long term, he said.

Vonage bought from Telefonica in a $35 million deal TokBox, for integrating live video into websites, mobile apps and IoT devices. It "brings a workforce of skilled technologists," said Vonage CEO Alan Masarek Wednesday. His company cited IDC forecasts the U.S. programmable video market will more than double by 2022 to about $7 billion.

FTC members voted 5-0 on Privacy Act notice changes that would let it transmit records to another agency that might be handling the investigation during a data breach, it said Tuesday. As suggested by the Office of Management and Budget, this “more specifically addresses harm to individuals and expands the concept to make clear that it is not limited to identity theft or financial harm,” said the commission.

The Department of Homeland Security launched the National Risk Management Center, an access point for defending against cyberthreats, said Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Tuesday. Instead of calling 911, companies and individuals should call the center when they believe they are under cyberattack, she said at the National Cybersecurity Summit in New York. “We will be able to take a piece of intelligence, and with the help of the private sector, ask ourselves ‘so what’ and determine what we’re going to do about it together.”