U.S. organizations will invest more than $232 billion in IoT software, services and connectivity this year, said an IDC report Wednesday. IoT revenue is forecast to grow at a 16 percent compound annual rate from 2015 to 2019, to more than $357 billion, IDC said. Manufacturing and transportation industries lead IoT spending for the forecast period at $35.5 billion and $24.9 billion, while cross-industry investment will approach $31 billion this year. Manufacturing, freight monitoring and smart buildings lead projected use cases, it said.

Mobile advertising company InMobi will pay $950,000 in civil penalties and institute a comprehensive privacy program, settling FTC allegations the Singapore-based company tracked locations of hundreds of millions of consumers without their knowledge or consent -- including children without parental consent -- in an effort to provide geo-targeted ads, said the commission Wednesday in a news release. Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the stipulated order and refer the complaint to DOJ, which filed both documents with the District Court for the Northern District of California. InMobi has an ad network that reaches more than 1 billion devices globally through thousands of popular apps and can serve those ads based on consumers' locations, the release said. The FTC alleged the company "misrepresented that its advertising software would only track consumers' locations when they opted in and in a manner consistent with their device's privacy settings." But InMobi tracked consumers even when they denied permission to access their locations, FTC said. The commission also alleged the company violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from apps directed at children "in spite of promising that it did not do so," the release said. The agency said the settlement subjected InMobi to a $4 million civil penalty, but it was reduced to $950,000 because of the company's financial condition. InMobi also must delete all data collected from children and is prohibited from further violating COPPA. The company also needs to get express consent from consumers to collect their location data and must delete any information from consumers who didn't consent, the commission said. InMobi will implement a comprehensive privacy program that will be audited every two years for the next two decades, the FTC said. The company emailed that it has "implemented a process to exclude any publisher’s site or app identified as a COPPA app from interest-based, behavioral advertising." During the FTC's investigation, the company said it "discovered" a "technical error" on its end that resulted in some COPPA sites being served with interest-based campaigns on its network. "InMobi promptly notified the FTC of this issue as soon as it was discovered and has made it clear from the outset that this was by no way means deliberate," it said, saying it has been compliant. The company said it would only use Wi-Fi information to serve location-based targeted ad campaigns when a user "has authorized the app to collect and transmit the same."

NTIA is “reviewing” a letter from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and three other Capitol Hill lawmakers that pressed the agency for further information on expenditures on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition process, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Cruz and the other lawmakers -- Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis. -- jointly criticized the NTIA Tuesday in a letter to Administrator Larry Strickling for the agency's “apparent violation” of a rider in the FY 2016 omnibus spending bill that bars NTIA from using federal funds on the IANA transition through Sept. 30 (see 1606210049).

Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker urged the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Wednesday to remain committed to the group's 2011 Principles for Internet Policy Making as it continues its Ministerial on the Digital Economy in Cancun, Mexico, this week. The OECD's Principles for Internet Policy Making emphasize a flexible policymaking approach based on the multistakeholder Internet governance model. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría warned Wednesday that legislation on a variety of issues isn't keeping up with changes in the digital economy. “Too many countries are taking a 20th century approach to a 21st century technology that is moving faster than any other the world has seen,” Gurría said during the ministerial. “The internet is profoundly transforming the way we live and work, but we could be getting a lot more out of it. The longer we dither on the digital economy, the less benefit we will get out of it as societies.” The OECD's digital economy ministerial “is an opportunity to ask ourselves, as the representatives of governments and the leaders of nations, if we are living up to those principles,” Pritzker said in a prepared version of her speech to the ministerial: “Too often, well-intentioned efforts to address legitimate concerns over issues like privacy and security lead to unintended consequences” via the enactment of data localization laws and "onerous" technical standards designed to restrict trade. Such policies “undermine our vision of a free, open and truly global internet,” Pritzker said. “We expect such policies from authoritarian regimes that want to isolate their people -- not from nations that welcome the global exchange of ideas and commerce.” Pritzker warned against the “alarming trend” toward internet fragmentation, which she said “should concern us all. Our ability to empower entrepreneurs, build long-term prosperity, and drive innovation hinges on our collective commitment to a global, free and open internet.” Pritzker also noted a new Commerce report that chronicles efforts during President Barack Obama's administration to expand the digital economy. The report shows Commerce's commitment to OECD principles on stakeholder cooperation on cybersecurity issues, privacy and multistakeholderism, she said.

The Office of Personnel Management and three other federal agencies haven't always “effectively implemented access controls” on high-impact systems under their jurisdiction,” GAO said in a report released Tuesday. It stemmed from GAO's survey of 24 federal agencies, including 18 that identified cyberattacks from foreign governments on their systems as their most frequently occurring security threat. OPM, the Department of Veterans Affairs, NASA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission displayed control weaknesses in “protecting system boundaries, identifying and authenticating users, authorizing access needed to perform job duties, and auditing and monitoring system activities,” GAO said. “Weaknesses also existed in patching known software vulnerabilities and planning for contingencies. An underlying reason for these weaknesses is that the agencies had not fully implemented key elements of their information security programs.” All four agencies had fully implemented risk assessments but were less thorough in implementing security plans, controls assessments and action plans, the GAO said. NASA, NRC, OPM and VA “should all fully implement key elements of their information security programs,” GAO said. The four agencies generally agreed to the GAO recommendations, but OPM said it didn’t concur with the recommendation on evaluating its security control assessments.

Consumers will make increasing use of digital personal assistants to interact with consumer services in the connected home, Gartner said in a Monday report. By 2019, the digital assistants on smartphones and other devices will be the primary interface to connected home services in at least 25 percent of homes in developed economies, said the research firm. “In the not-too-distant future, users will no longer have to contend with multiple apps,” it said. “Instead, they will literally talk to digital personal assistants such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant. Some of these personal assistants are cloud-based and [are] already beginning to leverage smart machine technology."

Twitter is seeking to deepen its machine-learning capabilities after acquiring Magic Pony Technology, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a Monday blog post announcing the deal. Magic Pony is a London developer of machine-learning techniques for visual processing. The acquired technology “will be used to enhance our strength in live video and opens up a whole lot of exciting creative possibilities for Twitter,” Dorsey said. The deal builds on other recent machine-learning investments for Twitter, including acquisitions of Madbits in July 2014 and Whetlab in June 2015, he said. No terms were disclosed.

The government is seeking proposals to help federal agencies improve their access, interoperability, search or use of their data and data services that would support priorities, including big data, cyber-physical systems, IoT, open access, open data and smart cities, the Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) said in a recent Federal Register notice. “Finding innovative ways to utilize the federal government’s expansive data resources will provide great opportunities for public-private sector collaboration," said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in a Monday news release. "Our [joint venture] business model can dramatically enhance the federal government’s ability to deliver better, more meaningful data anytime and anywhere," said new NTIS Director Avi Bender in the release. The notice cited a 2014 Commerce report that said federal data could guide up to $3.3 trillion in investments annually in the U.S. Proposals from potential JV partners could include: the design, testing, analysis or demonstration of how federal data and data services could be used with nonfederal data; the management of data and data sets; the creation of products, platforms and services based on federal data; or the enhancement of "data discovery and usability, data interoperability and standards, data analytics and forecasting, or data infrastructure and security," the notice said. The NTIS release said the JVs would require investments from partners, but could also be a revenue-sharing opportunity. NTIS scheduled an in-person informational session and webcast July 7. Deadline for proposals is Aug. 1.

The Article 31 Committee, an EU body comprised of member state representatives, meets Monday to discuss the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer agreement and then again on June 29, a European Commission spokeswoman confirmed in an email. The committee has taken longer than expected to review Privacy Shield, and its opinion does matter in the approval of the pact. It has been heavily criticized by other European entities -- including the Article 29 Working Party, which is comprised of national data protection authorities (see 1604130002), and European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli (see 1605310017) -- for not providing enough protection for EU citizen data and judicial redress for Europeans. Privacy Shield, proposed earlier this year, would replace the 15-year-old safe harbor agreement that was nullified by the European Court of Justice in October. In the meantime, businesses have been relying on other data-transfer mechanisms, including binding corporate rules and model contract clauses, but the latter instrument has come under legal scrutiny (see 1606020018). The EC is expected to approve Privacy Shield if and when the Article 31 Committee signs off on it, but many observers expect the new agreement to be immediately challenged in court.

Global shipments of wearable devices of all types are expected to reach 101.9 million units by the end of 2016, representing 29 percent growth over 2015, IDC said in a Wednesday report. IDC sees the market shipping 213.6 million devices in 2020, based on a 20.3 percent compound annual growth rate. Wrist-based activity trackers will be 50.5 percent of all wearables shipments this year, followed by smartwatches with 41 percent, IDC said. But those metrics will reverse themselves in 2020, when smartwatches will be 52.1 percent of all shipments, compared with only 28.5 percent for activity trackers, it said. “While smartwatches are in the spotlight today, future growth will come from basic watches that provide some sort of fitness/sleep tracking while not being sophisticated enough to run third party applications on the watch itself.” Through their simplicity, “fitness-focused wrist bands have dominated the market thus far,” it said. With big brands like Fitbit continuing to drive sales, “this category will remain influential and accessible,” it said. “However, that dominance will be challenged by watches as many watch vendors incorporate basic fitness features into their products.” Unit shipments of other forms of wearables through the end of the decade are expected to track well below those of smartwatches and fitness trackers, IDC said. For example, smart eyewear will account for fewer than one in every 10 wearable devices shipped in 2020, it said. "All eyes are on this lucrative category" because it will account for more than 40 percent of total wearables market revenue "due to the high prices for specialized commercial devices," it said.