Director of National Security Dan Coats said releasing information about collection of Americans' communications under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "would cause serious damage to national security," in a Sept. 1 letter to Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who released it Tuesday. Coats said he provided a "comprehensive classified response on July 24," which discussed why it "is properly classified and cannot be publicly released." Wyden now said he asked Coats a question at a June hearing regarding "a simple, yes-or-no question: Can the government use FISA Act Section 702 to collect communications it knows are entirely domestic?" Wyden said Coats answered the question, but later his press office told reporters the intelligence director was answering a different question. Coats' refusal should "set off alarms. How can Congress reauthorize this surveillance when the administration is playing games with basic questions about this program?" said Wyden. The senator wants the intelligence community to provide data on how many Americans' communications are swept up under 702, which forbids such collection (see 1706070047). The Office of the DNI didn't comment.

Huawei joined the Z-Wave Alliance’s board, said the alliance Tuesday. It joins principal members ADT, Alarm.com, Fibaro, Ingersoll-Rand, Jasco Products, Leedarson, LG Uplus, Nortek Security & Control, SmartThings and Sigma Designs.

Intel sees its road to the smart home through voice-control devices, Miles Kingston, general manager-smart home, told us in San Diego at the CEDIA show last week. After studying behavior in more than 1,000 homes in North America, Western Europe and China, his company determined technology could lessen friction through “emulating the human senses,” he said. Intel is working on having Amazon Alexa listen for “anomalies,” not just a wake word, Kingston said, like glass breaking, a baby crying or a dog barking. Such intelligence is based on edge computing, where devices in the home pack higher brainpower rather than relying on the cloud. Benefits include privacy, he said. Ease of use has been a primary barrier to adoption of smart home technology, the GM said. “You had a dozen applications that managed a dozen purpose-built devices. It wasn’t any quicker to turn your lights on if you had to turn on your phone, go find the right app and press the button,” he said. “Alexa has made it so simple." For voice to take off, he advises: “Invest in new Wi-Fi that’s meant for many, many devices.”

More than 80,000 individual drones were registered for commercial and government uses and more than 60,000 people obtained a pilot certificate to operate unmanned aircraft systems since the small drone rule known as Part 107 (see 1608290049) took effect a year ago, said the FAA in a Wednesday news release. The FAA said up to 1.6 million commercial drones, which weigh under 55 pounds, could be operating by 2021. The release touted drone uses including in response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey.

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Wednesday released a draft practice guide to help organizations recover from a cyber incident such as a ransomware attack, the center said in a Wednesday notice. It's seeking feedback on the draft -- called NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide SP 1800-11, Data Integrity: Recovering from Ransomware and Other Destructive Events -- through Nov. 6.

Two Verizon cellular customers who filed a proposed putative class-action lawsuit against Turn for allegedly using "zombie cookies" to collect their personal data to deliver ads won a petition to have their case reheard when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling that tossed out the suit and compelled arbitration with the company. "We are pleased with the Ninth Circuit's decision and are looking forward to litigating these claims," said Lieff Cabraser partner Nimish Desai, who represent plaintiffs William Cintron and Anthony Henson. Ninth Circuit Judges William Fletcher and Richard Tallman and District of Arizona Judge Roslyn Silver issued the per curiam opinion (in Pacer) Tuesday that said the District Court for the Northern District of California "committed clear error by applying New York’s equitable estoppel doctrine, rather than California’s, and by failing to apply California law correctly." It was one of three of five factors from the 1977 case, Bauman v. U.S. District Court, that the panel said weighed in favor of granting the petition. According to the opinion, Verizon granted Turn, described as a "middle man," a license to target ads to subscribers in exchange for a cut of the revenue. Turn attached tracking cookies to Verizon subscribers' "Unique Identifier Headers" to collect data to its servers, but the carrier's customers "were allegedly unable to detect, delete, or block these 'zombie' cookies attached to the UIDHs," said the opinion. Plaintiffs filed the class action on behalf of Verizon subscribers in New York, saying Turn engaged in deceptive practices and interfered with "the use and enjoyment" of their devices, said the opinion. Turn sought to dismiss claims and force arbitration in the customer agreement between customers and Verizon for any disputes, but the panel said Turn isn't a signatory to the agreement and the district court didn't do a "choice-of-law analysis" when it granted Turn's motion to compel arbitration. Neither digital marketing company Amobee, which said in April it's acquiring Turn, nor Turn's attorneys commented. Verizon declined to comment.

Global shipments of headsets for virtual and augmented reality in Q2 increased 26 percent from a year earlier to 2.1 million units, IDC reported Tuesday. Volume sequentially declined slightly, “but recent price cuts on existing products and announced plans for new products are expected to lay the groundwork for a successful holiday season,” IDC said. VR market growth “has been rather sluggish,” showing the need for “end user education is extremely high,” the company said.

The operators of the YouTube-mp3 website, which converts audio from YouTube videos into MP3 files, will be permanently restrained and enjoined from operating the site or substantially similar sites, under a proposed final judgment and permanent injunction (in Pacer) filed Friday in docket 16-7210 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. PMD Technologies, doing business as YouTube-mp3, was sued in 2016 by labels including Arista Records, Capitol Records, Warner Brothers Records and Sony Music Entertainment, claiming copyright violations. Under the settlement, defendants also would be permanently enjoined from operating any technology or service that allows such "streamripping" and required to give the www.YouTube-mp3.org domain name to the plaintiffs.

A telemarketing operation that the FTC said bilked consumers out of millions of dollars through "false" money-making schemes involving Amazon-linked websites and grants will be banned from the payment processing business under a settlement, said the agency in a Friday news release. Commissioners voted 2-0 to file the complaint and order, which was entered by the District Court for the District of Arizona Thursday. Utah-based G2 Consulting and owner Chad Gettel, in prison for pleading guilty to related mail fraud charges, operated schemes in the Phoenix area, said the agency. The order imposes a $3 million judgment that, because the defendants cannot pay, will be suspended unless they misrepresented their financial status.

Operators of an alleged telemarketing scheme will be banned from selling business opportunities and government grant products and services in a settlement with the FTC, said the agency in a Thursday news release. Commissioners voted 2-0 approved final orders that were entered by the District Court for the District of Arizona against defendants Stephanie Bateluna, Carl Morris Jr., Stacey Vela and Paramount Business Services. Each order imposes a judgment of more than $11.8 million but will be partially suspended for Bateluna, Vela and Paramount after they surrender assets. The FTC complaint last year (see 1610280023) said telemarketers "falsely" promised consumers creation of a retail website linked to Amazon that would generate income for consumers. Operators also falsely promised guaranteed government grants worth at least tens of thousands of dollars if consumers paid them thousands of dollars. Contact information for the defendants couldn't be found.