ICANN 61 still will take place in San Juan March 10-15 after officials visited Puerto Rico and received assurances from Gov. Ricardo Antonio Rosselló that hotels and the convention center are up and running and eager to host, the group announced Thursday.
Google will provide new data on government requests to remove content from services like YouTube and Blogger, the company announced Thursday, updating its transparency report. Other changes include expanding the national security letters section and making it easier for people to share select data and charts.
Worldwide IoT spending will reach $772.5 billion in 2018, up 14.6 percent from this year, and reaching $1.1 trillion in 2021, IDC reported Thursday. Hardware will account for most spending next year, largely for modules and sensors, with some spending on infrastructure and security, IDC said. Services will be the second largest technology category, followed by software and connectivity, led by application and analytics software, it said. Industries spending the most on IoT solutions next year will be manufacturing ($189 billion), transportation ($85 billion) and utilities ($73 billion), it said.
Facebook is being asked for assurances its new Messenger Kids app protects children’s privacy and security (see 1712040064), in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg by Senate Democrats Ed Markey, Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, Conn. They ask by Jan. 4 whether Facebook will continue its promise of an advertising-free service; identify information shared with vendors and service providers; describe the app's security protections; and summarize the extent of consultation with child development experts in designing the app. Facebook said it received the letter and pointed to its blog describing consultations with parents in developing the app and an ongoing $1 million research project examining tech’s long-term impact on children.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Thursday affirmed a lower court denying LabMD’s motion to dismiss an FTC decision that the cancer testing lab is liable for unfair data security practices. The lower court didn't abuse its discretion in limiting the scope of discovery in the case, the ruling said. Commissioners last year voted 3-0 to find the company liable for unfair data security practices (see 1603080005), after an in-house administrative law judge dismissed the case against the company. It contended that cybersecurity firm Tiversa did the digital equivalent of breaking and entering by finding the data breach, downloading stolen patient information, and trying to get the firm's business.
NTIA is developing policy recommendation to fight the rise in botnets, to be presented in a report to be delivered to the president in January, Evelyn Remaley, deputy associate administrator, said on a Practising Law Institute panel Thursday. IoT vulnerabilities have the attention of global businesses and governments, Remaley said: “We’re trying to get ahead of this but not stop innovation.” Response to global cybersecurity threats demands continuing commitment to the multistakeholder process, providing flexible options for industry and government, the panel heard. “We’re at an inflection point,” said Wilkinson Barker attorney Clete Johnson, an architect of National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cybersecurity Framework. Large-scale data breaches like at Equifax, growth in the number of distributed denial of service attacks fueled by botnets (see 1711210047), and increasing vulnerabilities in IoT devices are threats, he said. "We should be trying to increase the quality and security of IoT devices, and build security in at the outset of production,” said Eric Wenger, Cisco cybersecurity and privacy director-global government affairs. Cybersecurity is the only domain “where we ask companies to secure themselves,” said Kiersten Todt, Cyber Readiness Institute managing director. “We continue to use traditional frameworks and shoehorn them into a new landscape.” Todt, who worked in the Obama administration’s cybersecurity commission, said one of the “greatest risks” to national security is the amount of data stored after it’s outdated with no clear deletion procedures. “As America grapples with its cybersecurity challenges, it’s important to note that Europe has taken a different approach on privacy and cybersecurity standards," said Rudy Brioche, Comcast vice president-global public and policy counsel. Wenger said the rise of competing legal security and privacy standards isn't helpful to companies working globally, which is why global multistakeholder work is critical. Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070047.
Policymakers should adopt a technologically neutral stance on blockchain innovation and ensure strong privacy protections, said a Software & Information Industry Association paper Wednesday. SIIA plans a Jan. 18 panel with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.
The holiday season produced $65.15 billion in digital revenue Nov. 1 to Dec. 5, growth of 14.7 percent over the year-ago period, Adobe Digital Insights emailed Wednesday. Each day generated over $1 billion in online revenue, and Adobe is sticking with its prediction that 2017 will set an online record of $107.4 billion, making it the first year to cross $100 billion. Mobile shopping remains strong, with 49 percent of visits (40 percent from smartphones and 9 percent from tablets) and 32 percent of revenue (22 percent smartphones, 10 percent tablets). Post-Thanksgiving weekend, top electronics include Apple AirPods and iPads; Dell, Lenovo and HP laptops; Amazon Fire TV; and Samsung tablets, Adobe said. The best deals were during the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, but good deals remain on TVs, with prices down 15 percent since Oct. 1, computers (down 13 percent) and toys (down 15 percent), said the tracking company.
Smart TV and streaming media player manufacturers are focusing on user experience as device sales flatten, Parks Associates said Tuesday. Some 45 percent of U.S. broadband households have a smart TV, the most-used platform in U.S. households for accessing online video content. Eleven percent of such households have a “strong intention” to buy a 4K Ultra HD TV this holiday season, said analyst Jennifer Kent. New partnerships among device manufacturers focus on ways to “improve or refresh” the smart TV's user interface “to make the device easy to use and a single point of content in the living room,” Kent said. “Voice recognition and control are enabling entertainment equipment manufacturers to improve the user experience,” said analyst Dina Abdelrazik.
Tech companies trying to appease European regulators should "combat censorship creep," said a Cato Institute analysis released Tuesday by University of Maryland law professor and privacy expert Danielle Keats Citron. By pressuring Silicon Valley to take a more aggressive policy on suppressing extreme speech from platforms, EU regulators "have effectively set the rules for free expression across the globe," Citron said. The result could be removal of a wide array of protected speech, including political criticism and newsworthy content. Rigorous accountability and detailed reports on governmental efforts to censor hate speech can help curb government efforts to censor disfavored viewpoints, Citron said.