The National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Transportation plan a Thursday workshop on the effectiveness and challenges of applying current privacy controls in NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4, which is aimed at providing baseline privacy and security controls that strengthen federal information systems and organizations against cyberattacks. The revised publication was released more than three years ago. The 9 a.m.-3 p.m. event, which won't be webcast, will discuss privacy risk management, the role of privacy controls in develop better programs and whether additional guidance is needed. The event is at DOT, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE.

Microsoft got support from dozens of civil society, law professors, media, technology and other business organizations in its fight against DOJ's use of gag orders to keep the company from informing customers about government warrants to access their emails and other records (see 1604140041 and 1604180039). Amazon, Apple, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google, Mozilla, The New York Times, Twitter and Yahoo filed several amici briefs Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Microsoft filed a lawsuit in April against DOJ, which has been imposing gag orders through the Stored Communications Act, which is part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the suit July 22; Microsoft filed a response Aug. 26 and the government's response is due Sept. 23. Microsoft and various organizations said DOJ is violating the Constitution and continued use of gag orders would deter use of cloud computing. In one filing (in Pacer), 30 media organizations -- including The Associated Press, Fox News, Media Institute, Newspaper Association of America, Radio Television Digital News Association, Society of Professional Journalists and Washington Post -- said the gag orders violate the First Amendment and their reporting would be "impeded or curtailed completely" when companies are prevented from disclosing information about government searches. "That harm is even greater when those gag orders are indefinite," the filing said. Another filing (in Pacer) from a coalition of 15 diverse organizations -- including CDT, the Information Coalition, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- also said the government's use of gag orders "significantly" curtails privacy protections. They said if the government's view of gag order authority prevails, people and businesses will be "reluctant to take advantage" of cloud computing due to reduced privacy protection, "and society may lose the substantial cost-saving and efficiency gains." Another filing from major tech companies said DOJ's use of gag orders could invade Fourth Amendment privacy rights of customers, among other reasons. "There may well be some circumstances in which a narrowly tailored and time-limited gag order is justified, but the [Stored Communication] Act's authorization of gag orders sweeps far too broadly," it said. A Justice spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.

The FCC should extend suspension of the E-rate amortization policy for two more years and increase the discount rate for nonrecurring broadband constructions costs where states provide matching funds, said New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) in an Aug. 10 letter posted Friday. In 2014, the FCC suspended Universal Service Administrative Co.’s policy requiring E-rate applicants to amortize upfront special construction charges over multiple years. Also, the commission increased an applicant’s discount rate up to an additional 10 percent to match state funding. The actions “spurred school districts and states, in partnership with service providers, to invest in fiber build projects that almost certainly would not have been completed in the absence of the Commission’s efforts,” Martinez said. But the upfront, nonrecurring costs of fiber networks are still too high for most school districts, she said. She proposed the FCC provide a 90 percent discount when states provide 10 percent of construction costs: “The proposed changes will provide the time and resources for states and school districts to work with service providers to extend fiber optic networks to schools that need them.”

Acxiom sold its email business to Zeta Interactive, a marketing technology company, said the data broker in a Thursday news release. Acxiom said the transaction will "sharpen [its] focus on providing the data foundation for the world’s best marketers and opens the door to deeper partnerships with the marketing ecosystem." Sale proceeds will help the company fund its expanded share repurchase program, which was increased to $400 million.

The FTC released a detailed agenda of its Sept. 16 conference on marketing and consumer protection that will feature discussions by agency staff and representatives from a number of universities, said a Thursday news release. Topics of talks will include privacy policies and online display advertising, assessing native advertising in mobile search, algorithmic bias in serving ads in social media and value of mobile ad targeting. Ginger Jin, director of the FTC Economics Bureau, will open the conference. The 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. event will be in the FTC fifth-floor conference room at the Constitution Center, 400 7th St., SW. Preregistration is necessary, the commission said.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris sentenced Romanian national Marcel Lazar to 52 months in prison Thursday for hacking the personal email or social media accounts of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, friends and family of Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and almost 100 other American citizens, DOJ said. Lazar, better known as Guccifer, pleaded guilty in May to one count each of aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer, Justice said in a news release. Lazar revealed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s controversial use of a private email account during her time a secretary of state via his hacking of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s email account. Lazar also leaked photos of George W. Bush’s paintings and publicly released his victims’ personal information, DOJ said. Lazar was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Harman is launching hardware even as it emphasizes connectivity at the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin. “Software is replacing hardware” in the audio space, said Michael Mauser, president-lifestyle audio, who said demand is rapidly increasing for connected audio devices in the home, car and on-the-go. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are “replacing wires,” he said. New user interfaces, Mauser said, are replacing displays and remote controls. Harman announced Google Cast as its wireless multiroom audio solution and Siri and Google Now for voice control of some of its products. Jurjen Amsterdam, Harman senior category manager-home systems, Europe, Middle East and Africa, demo'd a smartphone connecting via Spotify app to the cloud and selecting music to play, and said he then “can switch off the phone, I can kill the app, I can play the game, I can leave the house."

The internet industry continues to support the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition because it “aligns the interests of internet users, prevents capture by any one stakeholder group or government such as China or Russia, and lays the foundation for a stable and secure internet,” said Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman in response to questions. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, had sent follow-up questions about Beckerman’s testimony during a May Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the IANA transition. Rubio backed delaying the IANA transition during the hearing, in which Beckerman and several others strongly backed going forward with the transition as planned for Oct. 1 (see 1605240067). Beckerman responded to Rubio’s concerns about ICANN’s commitment to mitigate Domain Name System abuse via contract enforcement, saying IA “firmly supports the ability of ICANN to enforce its contracts with registries and registrars.” It's in IA’s interest “to prevent abusive behavior in” the DNS, Beckerman said: “Because the ICANN community is now empowered to challenge action or inaction by the [ICANN board] and is developing additional accountability mechanisms” via the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s, work on a second set of accountability mechanism changes will make it “possible to ensure that the Board is exercising oversight that results in ICANN’s proper execution of its enforcement role according to ICANN’s bylaws.” Beckerman also said aspects of a set of changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms for the IANA transition preserved the entity's ability to enforce its existing contracts: “ICANN has a narrow technical remit and, as ICANN CEO Göran Marby recently pledged, does not have the authority or capability to ‘interpret or enforce laws regulating websites or website content.’”

ICANN General Counsel John Jeffrey disputed former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz's criticisms of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority changeover, saying in a letter to the editor released Thursday that ICANN “is not, and never has been exempted from” U.S. antitrust laws. Crovitz wrote in a column that ICANN had an “antitrust exemption.” Crovitz’s column “disregards the diligent work of the ICANN Community, including U.S. businesses, academia, technical experts, end users and civil society, who developed a plan for the transition that specifically ensures the role of [the Department of Commerce] is not replaced by another government or intergovernmental organization,” Jeffrey said. If the IANA transition occurs as planned Oct. 1, “ICANN will have no mandate, need or reason to seek to be overseen by another governmental group for protection,” Jeffrey said. Americans for Limited Government, which has been critical of the IANA transition, claimed last week that NTIA “failed to consider the antitrust ramifications” of the transition based on the results of a Freedom of Information Act request. The agency said its review of transition plans didn’t find “any significant competitive issues” (see 1608290047).

Thursday's NTIA workshop on fostering IoT growth will build on comments the agency received in the spring on the strategic role for government in this effort. The 9 a.m.-3 p.m. workshop will have discussions on privacy and security implications and technological barriers for IoT implementation and help provide input for the Commerce Department's upcoming green paper on IoT. Among speakers are former FTC Commissioner Julie Brill, now a Hogan Lovells attorney, Commerce Director-Digital Economy Alan Davidson, Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield, Patent and Trademark Office Deputy Director Russell Slifer and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. The webcast event will be held at the PTO office, 600 Dulany St., Alexandria, Virginia. The National Institute of Standards and Technology held a two-day workshop Tuesday and Wednesday on the trustworthiness of IoT and cyber-physical systems. In a blog post Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said both workshops are part of a larger effort the Obama administration is taking to ensure that innovation, privacy and safety are considered in expanding the IoT market. Other activities include a Department of Homeland Security collaboration with industry to develop a cybersecurity assurance program, two federal interagency working groups' examinations of IoT R&D and a $160 million smart cities initiative to help communities use IoT and other technologies to improve traffic congestion, pollution, crime and other challenges.