Recent government action on transgender issues is "troubling and goes against all that we believe in," said Yahoo in a Thursday statement. The Education and Justice departments under President Donald Trump's direction withdrew guidance issued last year that required public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms based on their gender identity. In the brief statement posted on Tumblr, Yahoo said it "has and always will recognize the inalienable right to equality for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression." In multiple news reports, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Uber also expressed similar dismay. Some of those same companies and their associations were also upset at Trump's immigration curtailment order (see 1701290001).

Webpass service will soon be available to some Denver apartments, the company said in a Wednesday post on the Google Fiber blog. The company signed its first apartment building in the area to receive the high-speed internet service, Webpass founder Charles Barr wrote. “Webpass is currently building out its local data center stack that will allow installation of point-to-point wireless radios to provide service to customers.” Also, the company named Roger Fitch general manager for the Denver business, Barr said. Google Fiber last year announced it would scale back fiber builds while exploring wireless technologies (see 1610260034) and bought last-mile gigabit wireless company Webpass (see 1610030035).

Roughly 60 percent of respondents in an Open Connectivity Foundation survey of 250 respondents at CES said they consider standardization and interoperability, cybersecurity concerns, and overall technological innovation when buying connected devices, said OCF. Lack of industry consensus on open standards and protocols is hindering IoT market growth, it said. “Without seamless interoperability among connected devices, regardless of brand or manufacturer, the Internet of Things cannot reach its full potential,” said the group. Findings from the survey: 67 percent of respondents said they owned three or more connected devices; 80 percent planned to buy a connected device in the next six months; 54 percent showed a preference for devices that connect to the Internet; 63 percent said it’s important that devices interoperate and communicate seamlessly; and 60 percent said they would be much more likely to purchase connected devices with a security certification.

If a company threatens legal action or bars a consumer's legitimate online review of a product or service, it can be disciplined by the FTC and state attorneys general, said the commission in a blog post that outlined staff guidance on how to comply with the Consumer Review Fairness Act that was passed into law in December. "It's illegal to ban honest reviews," the FTC tweeted Wednesday, a day after the post. The bipartisan law, which was heavily supported by industry and consumer groups (see 1612150021 and 1512150012), prevents businesses from using nondisparagement or gag clauses to prohibit consumers from sharing negative opinions about a company's conduct, product or service in online reviews, social media posts and uploaded photos and videos. The blog post offered information about specific conduct barred by the law, penalties for violations and what companies can do to protect themselves from "inappropriate or irrelevant content."

There’s a “growing interest” among automotive OEMs in the deployment of “Level 2-Plus” autonomous-driving systems as a "phased" prelude to more advanced Level 3 and Level 4 self-driving vehicles, said Amnon Shashua, chairman and chief technology officer at components supplier Mobileye, on a Wednesday earnings call. Society of Automotive Engineers standard J3016 defines Level 2 as vehicles with automated acceleration, braking or steering features that still must rely on a human to perform most driving functions. Level 2-Plus systems will still need the driver “to be alert,” but they also will be “rich with sensory input” to assist with semi-automated driving, Shashua said. Level 2-Plus systems have the "potential" to be deployed in “significant” volumes in “premium” vehicles, the executive said. “We believe this is going to become the next push -- still Level 2, but very advanced content of driving-assist." Mobileye "separately" will continue work on "Level 3 and Level 4 activities,” he said. SAE defines Level 3 as “conditional” automation and Level 4 as “high” automation, one notch down on the scale from Level 5 “full” autonomy, meaning a self-driving car that requires no human control in any driving scenario. Mobileye is “already engaged” with 10 automotive OEMs on Level 3 and Level 4 deployments, Shashua said. He sees Level 2-Plus adoption beginning in late 2018 or early 2019, he said. Level 2-Plus as an autonomous-driving system “is not perfect in the sense that it can cover all crash situations,” he said. But “critical safety and redundancy” features in higher levels of autonomous driving “add a lot of cost,” he said. Level 2-Plus allows OEMs “to introduce high-content systems and still require the driver to be alert and take responsibility and take control,” he said.

CEVA and Waves Audio are collaborating on far-field voice pickup and psychoacoustic enhancement solutions for mobile, smart home and wireless audio markets, they said in a Tuesday announcement. Waves’ MaxxVoice is said to improve speech recognition in far-field voice applications while using far-field voice pickup and barge-in capabilities using acoustic echo cancellation. MaxxAudio is designed for louder sound with more bass, they said. “Voice is becoming a primary interface to control and interact, requiring advanced algorithms and processors to deliver a seamless experience," said Tomer Elbaz, Waves general manager-consumer electronics. The company’s technology with CEVA’s audio/voice digital signal processor offers an embedded solution for a low-power audio or voice-enabled platform, he said.

LG's webOS 3.5 Security Manager is the first smart TV platform to land UL certification “for its effective cybersecurity capabilities,” LG said in a Tuesday announcement. UL tested the webOS 3.5 Security Manager for malware susceptibility and vulnerabilities, software weaknesses and security controls under its 2900-1 Cybersecurity Assurance Program, LG said. “UL assessed the effectiveness of each webOS 3.5 security layer by subjecting the software to a variety of virtual network penetrations and vulnerability attacks.”

Smartwatch and fitness wearable growth has “begun to slow” and will own just over half of wearables revenue by 2021, compared with an expected 75 percent this year, Juniper Research reported Tuesday. Smart glasses will be the highest growth sector of consumer wearables over the next five years, reaching 11 percent, it said. Smart glasses revenue is forecast to grow from $327 million this year to $9 billion during the period. Healthcare wearables are forecast to see a $7 billion increase in annual revenue from 2017 to 2021, though the volume of information could make interpretation difficult, said analyst James Moar.

Internet Society Vice President-Global Policy Development Sally Wentworth acknowledged the Domain Name Association’s Copyright Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy (ADRP) proposal and the Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) intention to implement a pilot version of that process (see 1702080085 and 1702170058) have sparked a lively debate among ISOC members. Participants in the group’s internet policy discussion list have been debating the copyright ADRP, with several urging ISOC to weigh in, since the group formed PIR in 2002. Wentworth said in an email to the discussion list that she has “been following this discussion closely” and recognized that “a number of important points have been made about this issue. I don’t have all the answers just yet but am working to get greater clarity on where this proposal stands.”

FTC staff recommended that a draft template to help security researchers disclose cybersecurity vulnerabilities to industries, particularly for automobile and medical device manufacturers, can be "useful tool for any company providing software-based products and services to consumers," said the agency in a Thursday news release. Commissioners voted 2-0 to authorize staff to comment on the draft template that was produced by an NTIA-driven multistakeholder process (see 1612150074). The FTC said its staff suggested "the draft template be revised to make clear that the recommendations could apply to more than just safety-critical industries. In its comment, the staff noted that companies that provide Internet-connected products or collect sensitive consumer information should consider implementing a vulnerability disclosure policy and related processes."