Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Alphabet/Google's YouTube formed the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to boost their collaboration in curbing online terrorist and violent extremist content, said Facebook in a Monday news release. The forum builds on the companies' initiative with the EU (see 1606030037 and 1605310051), creation of a shared industry hashtag database (see 1612060053 and 1612090049) and other efforts. The forum "will formalize and structure existing and future areas of collaboration between our companies and foster cooperation with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the UN." Initially, the forum will focus on technological solutions, research on counter-speech efforts and more collaboration with counterterrorism experts to develop best practices and other initiatives.

Influencers and marketers aren't heeding FTC warnings about disclosing their relationships to brands when promoting products on Instagram, said Public Citizen and other organizations in a Monday news release, prompting the groups to again complain to the agency. More than two months ago, the FTC sent out more than 90 letters to influencers and marketers as reminders they should reveal material connections between themselves and advertisers unless it's already clear from the context of the communication (see 1704190031). Public Citizen said that from May 1 to June 12 it tracked 46 Instagram influencers who received the FTC letter and found that "only one fully and consistently complied" with agency policy. "In total, 327 (79 percent) of the 412 advertisements posted by the 46 influencers did not comply with FTC standards," said Public Citizen. The group, along with Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, sent a letter to the FTC asking it to enforce the guidelines and seek penalties. "The FTC must demonstrate that there will be consequences for failure to follow the FTC’s guidelines," said the letter. It said the commission should work with Instagram to create a system "to denote paid posts consistent with" those guidelines. An FTC spokesman emailed that the agency is reviewing the groups' letter.

Facebook launched an initiative to help journalists protect their accounts, blogged Catherine Cole with the company's Journalism Partnerships and Head-Global Safety Antigone Davis Friday. They said the company introduced a Facebook page to provide journalists with information on "online safety, such as how to turn on two-factor authentication, manage privacy settings, moderate comments, block harassment, control location sharing, help protect communications, report abusive content and impersonation, and respond to being hacked." Cole and Davis hinted at more to come with the initiative, which is part of the Facebook Journalism Project (see 1701110064) and developed in consultation with the Committee to Protect Journalists, ConnectSafely, European Journalism Centre and others.

Google later this year will stop scanning contents of users Gmail content to deliver targeted ads, blogged Diane Greene, senior vice president-Google Cloud, Friday. She wrote G Suite's Gmail isn't used for ad personalization and the company will follow suit with the free consumer Gmail service. "Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization," she wrote. "This decision brings Gmail ads in line with how we personalize ads for other Google products." She said ads are shown based on user settings and users can disable ad customization. She said there are more than 1.2 billion Gmail users.

The FTC wants to hear from consumers whether the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (Can-Spam) has benefited them or if it should be modified due to technological and economic changes. The commission said in a Thursday news release it voted 2-0 to approve a systemic review "about the efficiency, costs, benefits, and regulatory impact" of the rule. The FTC published in the Federal Register a notice Thursday, seeking comment by >Aug. 31.

Intel joined Team8, the Israeli cybersecurity “syndicate” with members including AT&T, Cisco, Microsoft, Nokia and Qualcomm, Team8 said in a Wednesday announcement. Intel will work with Team8 to secure future computing, IoT, mobile, automotive and cloud technologies, it said: “Intel and Team8 will collaborate to identify security gaps in future networks, technologies and infrastructures with a view to developing new cyber paradigms to address these challenges.”

Comments to NTIA about improving industry ability to deal with botnets and other automated and distributed threats (see 1706090008) were extended to July 28, said the Department of Commerce in a notice slated to appear in Thursday's Federal Register.

American consumers are more likely than counterparts in Canada, China, Germany and the U.K. to opt for a rear-seat entertainment system in their next vehicle, and they’re willing to shell out $640 on average for it, IHS Markit report said Monday, based on a survey of about 5,000 people. Only 32 percent of consumers agreed that telematics would be a feature they would be willing to pay for in their next new vehicle, with in-car Wi-Fi desired by 29 percent.

GTT Communications acquired Perseus in a $37.6 million cloud networking deal, GTT said in a Tuesday news release. The deal gives GTT new points of presence and routes on its global Tier 1 IP backbone, plus Perseus’ financial service and e-commerce customers. GTT will assume about $3 million in capital leases, it said.

American consumer concerns about identity theft, bank card fraud, hacking, viruses and online transactions have grown considerably in the past three years, found a Unisys survey of more than 13,000 consumers in 13 countries released Tuesday. The only issue far more concerning to Americans is national security as it relates to war or terrorism, said the survey -- which dates to 2007 and is the first conducted since 2014. Bill Searcy, Unisys vice president-global justice, law enforcement and border security, said at a news conference that the rising numbers show people "feel they have a lack of control," given terrorism and cybercrime stories in the news. ID theft, he said, is another major problem, citing the 2015 Office of Personnel Management breach (see 1507090049) and other attacks. "Those of us who really don't understand computer systems are just that much more vulnerable, so I think that's why there's some concern," he said. Frank Cilluffo, who directs George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, said physical and cyber threats are converging "a lot quicker" than decision-makers and communities can understand. He said the threat spectrum is "vast and diverse" along with the growing interconnected IoT devices that presents a bigger attack landscape. "If there were a clarion call right now, it's that we need to start baking security into the design of our very infrastructures," he said. National Institute of Standards and Technology fellow Ron Ross said the complexity of internet and computer systems is growing, which also is a security threat. "We have to build an infrastructure that is leaner and meaner" and trusted, he said. He said the White House's cybersecurity executive order (see 1705110058) along with NIST publications like the Cybersecurity Framework can help.