Google said it stopped a phishing email campaign impersonating Google Docs that was attempting to compromise Gmail users. "We've removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again," said a Wednesday tweet. In a later statement, the company said it resolved the issue about an hour after it first tweeted that it was investigating a phishing email. It said the phishing campaign "affected fewer than 0.1% of Gmail users. While contact information was accessed and used by the campaign, our investigations show that no other data was exposed."

Governments worldwide made 11,247 requests for information on 18,015 Yahoo user accounts for the second half of 2016, the company reported Thursday. Requests declined by about 1,400 from the first six months of last year. Of the 11,247 requests, the U.S. lodged 4,220 -- the most of any country -- for user data on 7,745 accounts. Of those U.S. requests, Yahoo rejected 210, didn't find data for 433 requests, disclosed contents for 900 and disclosed non-content data for 2,677. Non-content data includes: basic subscriber information such as alternate email address, name, location and IP address; login details; billing information; and metadata such as "to," "from" and "date" fields from email headers. Yahoo said it received 0-499 national security letter (NSL) requests on as many accounts. NSLs require companies to disclose information such as names, addresses and length of service of users, said Yahoo.

ICANN is seeking comment on the effectiveness of a revised procedure for handling conflicts between complying with WHOIS domain registration data requirements and global privacy laws, implemented in recent weeks (see 1704190042). ICANN said in a Wednesday news release it's seeking comment on the paper, which opens the review process on the procedure, through June 12. Input will be incorporated into a report and provided to the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council for its review, said ICANN. "Outputs from this assessment and comment process are expected to inform the next periodic review."

Facebook will hire 3,000 people over the next year to review millions of weekly reports it gets about live videos or ones posted later that show crimes, including murders, and suicides, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post Wednesday. The hires to the company's global community operations team will be on top of the current 4,500 employees, he said. "These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don't allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation," said Zuckerberg. "We'll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it -- either because they're about to harm themselves, or because they're in danger from someone else." The company is building better tools that make it easier for users to report problems and enable reviewers to determine violations more quickly and to report them more easily to law enforcement, he added. "Just last week, we got a report that someone on Live was considering suicide. We immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself," he said. "In other cases, we weren't so fortunate."

Voxx is combining its vehicle security, remote start and telematics group with the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) unit to form the new vehicle safety, security and convenience group, said the company in a Tuesday announcement. The new unit will be headed by Joe Dentamaro, vice president-vehicle safety, security and convenience, and Shane Wilson, who headed the ADAS group, will take on the new position of assistant vice president, said the company. Dan Bisceglia was promoted to product manager and will relocate to Voxx’s Troy, Michigan, facility, which also houses OEM engineering and the product test unit. Over time, the company will expand the group to include field applications technicians and trainers, it said.

IAC/InterActiveCorp's HomeAdvisor and Angie's List will combine into a new public company called ANGI Homeservices, they announced. The deal is expected to close in 4Q subject to approvals from regulators and Angie's List stockholders, they said Monday. The brands will be maintained. Angie's List first received an unsolicited bid from IAC in November 2015 (see 1511120017).

Growing interest in artificial intelligence systems will drive a $59.8 billion market globally by 2025, up from $1.4 billion last year, said a Tuesday Tractica report, a revision to a Q3 report updated to reflect a “greater-than-anticipated pace of change in the market." Applications cross the consumer, automotive, advertising, finance, healthcare and aerospace sectors, as companies look for ways to leverage advanced data analytics, vision, and language capabilities for improved business processes and new business models, said the research firm. Analyst Aditya Kaul called AI “the next big technological shift,” comparing it to the industrial revolution, the computer age and the "smartphone revolution."

Steven Chase, who the FBI said was the creator and lead administrator of the child porn website Playpen hosted on the Tor network, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, DOJ announced. The 58-year-old Chase -- found guilty in September of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and advertising, transporting and possessing child pornography -- also was given a lifetime term of supervised release and ordered to forfeit his residence in Naples, Florida, the Monday release said. After Chase was arrested in February 2015, the FBI seized the website and deployed a "network investigative technique," which some experts said is a euphemism for malware, to hack into website visitors' computers and over about two weeks get information such as their IP addresses. Some privacy organizations said the FBI's action were illegal because the government used a search warrant that illegally permitted extraterritorial searches and seizures (see 1702100005 and 1610250049). "As a result of the ongoing investigation, at least 350 U.S.-based individuals have been arrested, 25 producers of child pornography have been prosecuted, 51 alleged hands-on abusers have been prosecuted and 55 American children who were subjected to sexual abuse have been successfully identified or rescued," said DOJ. Chase's two co-defendants each were sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year, added Justice.

News Corp.'s Storyful, a social news and marketing company, and analytics firm Moat are launching an initiative to fight fake news and curb the spread of extremist content, the firms said in a Tuesday news release. To help agencies, brands and platforms make better decisions where they can place advertising, the Open Brand Safety framework, in partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY) journalism school, will create a database of web domains and video URLs identified as intentionally spreading misinformation and extremism, the release said. "This initiative represents a prime opportunity to offer partners safe spaces for their stories. We have to help stop the faux, flawed and fraudulent content creators before they proliferate further," said Storyful CEO Rahul Chopra. Moat provides analytics on ad campaigns for advertisers and publishers and is being acquired by Oracle, the company said two weeks ago. The framework includes partner ad firms GroupM and Weber Shandwick, with plans to bring on more such companies. Jeff Jarvis, who directs CUNY's Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, said: "My long-term hope is Storyful and Moat will support a flight to quality, helping advertisers and platforms not only avoid fraudulent content but support credible and trustworthy media." Jarvis is also advising Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' new Wikitribune to also fight fake news (see 1704260042).

Cisco plans to pay $610 million cash to acquire Viptela, a software-defined wide area network company, in a deal expected to close in second-half 2017, Cisco said in a Monday news release. The deal requires customary closing conditions and regulatory review, Cisco said.