Enforcement of Digital Advertising Alliance guidance on how companies collect and use consumer data, deliver targeted ads and provide notice and choice to people across their multiple devices will begin Feb. 1, said a DAA Thursday news release. "This enforcement date sets a common marker for the industry to achieve compliance with the DAA cross-device guidance, so consumers have access to more uniform notice around cross-device practices and know their choices on each browser or device are honored," said Executive Director Lou Mastria. DAA said the guidance explains how its principles apply to browser- and app-based choices made by consumers to data collected on that browser or device and used elsewhere. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will independently enforce DAA's cross-device guidance for all companies that collect and use data covered by the DAA principles.

The Department of Commerce plans to extend and expand its Digital Attaché program to 12 global markets, from the six markets the program now covers, said Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker Wednesday during an Internet Association event. The pilot Digital Attaché program now covers the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Brazil, China, the EU, India, and Japan. Commerce said it will determine the additional six markets based on input from stakeholders. “The Digital Attaché initiative is an integral piece of the Department’s comprehensive strategy to address 21st century digital trade barriers,” Pritzker said in a news release. “These Attachés serve as dedicated resources for U.S. businesses as they seek to increase exports through global E-commerce channels and navigate digital policy and regulatory issues in foreign markets."

A multinational tech support company used deceptive internet pop-up ads to "scare thousands of consumers" into coughing up money for unnecessary services, said the FTC in a Wednesday news release. The commission voted 3-0 to approve the complaint, which was filed Oct. 3 in the District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri. A federal judge also issued a temporary order stopping the Missouri-based Global Access Technical Support's practices and freezing its assets. The FTC alleged the company used affiliate marketers to place pop-up ads to deceive consumers into thinking they were warnings sent by legitimate companies like Apple or Microsoft about malware infections. The ads were described as "loud alarms or recorded messages" of threats to consumers' computers and browsers, leaving users unable to close those ads or navigate around them, the release said. When consumers called a provided toll-free number they were connected to telemarketers at a call center in India who claimed they were with a major tech company, the FTC said. The telemarketers were then given remote access to consumers' computers and deceived them that technical support services were needed to fix problems, the release added. Consumers were charged $200 to $400 for services "that could take hours to complete and which were at best useless, and in some cases could actually harm consumers' computers," the FTC alleged. A message was left through one company-affiliated phone number found on a Better Business Bureau website. When another affiliated phone number was dialed a woman picked up saying the caller had the wrong number. A third number affiliated with the company didn't work.

Rising broadband adoption may not reduce the amount of physical mail for the U.S. Postal Service, the Government Accountability Office said in a Wednesday report. “Broadband use has in recent years been associated with reduced use of First-Class Mail,” GAO said. “Continued declines as a result of broadband, however, are uncertain.” GAO analyzed USPS data from 2007-2014 and found that households with broadband internet service tend to send less transaction mail than other households. But broadband hasn’t had a statistically significant effect on letters and greeting cards, it said. Rural households without broadband tended to send more mail than others, it said. GAO couldn’t find a consensus of experts on the impact of broadband to mail -- four of the 11 consulted predicted decreases in first-class mail, but several others “suggested that Internet privacy and security concerns, as well as many individuals having already changed postal habits in response to the Internet, are among the factors that could be contributing to a slowed rate of ‘electronic diversion’ from mail.” Also, e-commerce has increased the number of packages handled by USPS, especially in rural areas, GAO said. GAO found no statistically significant relationship between broadband use and in-person post office visits. GAO didn’t make any recommendations and USPS didn’t comment on a draft of the report.

The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) is joining with the AllSeen Alliance and will operate under the OCF name and bylaws, the groups announced. The merger will advance interoperability between connected devices supporting AllSeen’s AllJoyn IoT framework and OCF’s IoTivity open source project, they said Monday. The merged groups will collaborate on future OCF specifications and IoTivity and AllJoyn open source projects, with OCF sponsoring both projects at The Linux Foundation. Both will collaborate to support future versions of the OCF specification in a single IoTivity implementation that combines elements of both technologies, they said. Current devices using either AllJoyn or IoTivity will be interoperable and backward-compatible, ensuring products currently being developed using either technology will work together, they said. The AllSeen Alliance brings a diverse, global membership and millions of AllJoyn-certified products, and OCF brings its membership roster and formal IoT standards with expertise across multiple vertical markets and cloud-based architecture, said the groups.

“Breaking boundaries to ignite an eco world” will be the theme of LeEco’s Oct. 19 event in San Francisco to trumpet its official U.S. launch (see 1609300064), said a just-posted graphic on the company’s website. LeEco, the Chinese consumer electronics, content and e-commerce giant, has been quiet since announcing plans in late July to buy Vizio for $2 billion (see 1607260066), except for a few high-level hires. Those included Richard Ren, the former Huawei executive, as acting president of all "vertical businesses" in North America (see 1609260039). Despite its impending Vizio acquisition, LeEco promises the Oct. 19 event will feature “a lot more than just screens.”

The Cloud Security Alliance released guidelines to help IoT designers and developers understand security measures for IoT-related products and services, said a Friday CSA news release. CSA’s report cites 13 considerations and guidance for designing and developing “reasonably secure” IoT devices to mitigate common issues with IoT device development, it said. Topics include IoT device security challenges; security options available for IoT development platforms; a categorization of IoT device types and a threat review; recommendations for secure device design and development processes; and a checklist for security engineers and examples of IoT products mapped to relevant threats, it said.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released a redacted Electronic Frontier Foundation briefing that says national security letters (NSLs) and accompanying gag orders violate companies' free-speech rights, said privacy group EFF in a Friday news release. Representing two service providers before the court, the group said most proceedings have been sealed since the case began five years ago. NSLs are a type of administrative subpoena that seeks information relevant to a terrorism investigation or clandestine activity and usually comes with a gag order, preventing companies from notifying users of the demand or discussing the letters. Some companies like Open Whisper Systems have fought government gag orders successfully, EFF said. “Our clients want to join this conversation, using their own experiences as a basis to talk about what kind of government surveillance is appropriate and what reform is needed -- but NSL gags prevent them from doing so," said EFF staff attorney Andrew Crocker in the release. "We’re asking the court to strike down this unconstitutional statute so we can have the robust and inclusive debate that this issue deserves.”

AT&T signed a multiyear agreement with Amazon Web Services to integrate the companies’ networking and cloud capabilities, the telco ISP said in a news release Thursday. The partnership will ease customer migration to the AWS cloud, it said. The companies plan to collaborate on business cloud networking, IoT and cybersecurity threat management, it said.

CEO Göran Marby said he’s further restructuring ICANN’s leadership apparatus “to better support the community” in “an evolution, not a revolution.” All executives will now have a deputy, with Marby naming Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah as deputy CEO. Atallah “has tremendous experience and knowledge of ICANN,” in part because he was acting CEO between former CEO Fadi Chehadé’s departure in March and the start of Marby’s administration in May, Marby said in a Tuesday blog post. General Counsel John Jeffrey's portfolio will expand, adding oversight of a new complaints office. The new complaints officer “will receive, investigate and respond to complaints about the ICANN organization’s effectiveness, and will be responsible for all complaints systems and mechanisms across the ICANN organization,” Marby said. The officer will work closely with Ombudsman Herb Wayne. The complaints office “is an important role that will provide a focus point for the community if they have complaints about the ICANN organization,” Marby said: “It is an additional way to keep the organization and me accountable” to stakeholders but “in no way replaces or supersedes the important role of all ICANN’s formal accountability mechanisms.” ICANN’s Board Operations office will now be under Chief Operating Officer Susanna Bennett. She will lead an organizational review team that “will focus on the internal assessment and controls audit, and reporting of organization-wide performance, based on targets, to ensure best practices and alignment across the organization,” Marby said. He said he's also creating a new senior vice president-contract compliance and consumer safeguards role, which will replace the current chief contract compliance officer. Current CCCO Allen Grogan previously said he will retire in December. Diane Schroeder was promoted to senior vice president-global human resources, reporting directly to Marby, he wrote.