Netflix thinks the growth of internet TV mirrors that of the mobile phone, CEO Reed Hastings said Monday in an online earnings Q&A. “Fixed-line telephony was an amazing invention,” because it brought 100 years of “broad, incredible benefits to society, and the same thing is true with linear TV,” Hastings said. It has been an “amazing innovation,” but “the age of linear is starting to fade and it's going to be replaced by internet,” he said. “So I think you have to think big about the future.” Netflix is “closing in” on 100 million global subscribers, “but I remind everyone at Netflix that Facebook and YouTube have 1 billion daily actives,” he said. “And so, in many parts, we are just so small compared to those other internet video firms and we have a lot of catch-up to do." That’s why Netflix is so heavily “investing in our content and making it globally interesting and compelling,” he said. “So there's a lot out there” in terms of market opportunity, he said: “But we only just have to take it year by year, and it's tremendous fun inventing the future.” Netflix shares closed 19 percent higher Tuesday at $118.79 after Q3 subscriber additions exceeded the company's forecasts (see 1610170061).

Cybersecurity spending on connected medical devices by healthcare providers and OEMs will reach $5.5 billion this year, but "only $390 million" of that will be earmarked for securing medical devices, said ABI Research in a news release Monday. "Healthcare stakeholders have to understand that there is a new hostile environment that will emerge around networked medical devices and that threat actors have multiple levels of skills and diverging motivations for attacking the medical IoT," said Research Director Michela Menting. While the U.S. is the only country "putting significant energies" into this area, ABI said awareness is increasing and global spending will triple by 2021.

Two out of three people encountered a tech support scam over the past year, found a Microsoft global survey summarized in a National Cyber Security Alliance blog post Monday. Courtney Gregoire, senior attorney in Microsoft's digital crimes unit, wrote that one in five consumers surveyed either downloaded software, visited a scam website, provided remote access to a computer or handed over credit card or other payment data -- and one in 10 lost money. She said consumers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars from such scams but often are "embarrassed or scared" to report them. The survey, conducted during the summer, included respondents from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and U.S. Fraudsters typically have called older people to say their computers have been infected and try to sell them unnecessary tech support, Gregoire said, but scammers are now using "pop-ups, unsolicited email and scam websites" and luring younger people. The FTC recently filed a complaint against a multinational tech support company based in Missouri (see 1610120057).

Increasing the transparency of data collection, sharing use and retention; ensuring that information flow and use are in line with privacy principles; and reducing privacy risks of algorithms are three main areas of focus in a Monday call for research papers by Feb. 24 from the Future of Privacy Forum, International Association of Privacy Professionals and Washington & Lee University School of Law. The expanded collection and use of data can provide societal benefits like identifying discrimination and bias and has risks such as breaches, the groups said in a two-page summary. Policy advocates and technical experts are divided over "how privacy priorities should be managed in relation to other values," the groups said. The summary provides explanations and pertinent questions for each of the focus areas.

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.”