The Center for Democracy & Technology posted on its website a revised draft of voluntary best practices for the private use of drones -- both commercial and noncommercial -- including principles for privacy, transparency and accountability. Harley Geiger, CDT advocacy director and senior counsel, wrote in a Thursday blog post a "meaningful set" of such practices can help address the "strong distrust" that the public has about drones. "Our proposed best practices incorporate extensive input from commercial drone operators and civil society groups, resulting in significant changes from our original draft. CDT does not presume our model is flawless and is open to additional constructive feedback," he wrote about the revised draft. CDT presented a prior draft nearly a month ago during an NTIA multistakeholder process that considered drafts from two other groups (see 1511200050). However, the participants in that meeting were unable to agree on a set of best practices and are currently working on potentially combining CDT's draft with one issued by Hogan Lovells.

Two app developers agreed to pay a combined $360,000 to settle FTC allegations they violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rule. Commissioners voted 4-0 to refer the complaints to the Justice Department and approve the proposed stipulated civil penalty orders, which have the force of law when signed by a district court judge, the commission said in a news release Thursday. It said DOJ filed the complaints and orders on behalf of the commission with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. "These cases are the first in which the FTC alleged that companies allowed advertisers to use persistent identifiers to serve advertising to children," said the commission. It described persistent identifiers as "pieces of data that are tied to a particular user or device." In its complaint against Retro Dreamer, which will pay a $300,000 civil penalty, the FTC alleged the company and principals Craig Sharpe and Gavin Bowman allowed third-party advertisers to collect children's personal information through a number of apps. "One advertising network over the course of 2013 and 2014 specifically warned the defendants about the obligations of the revised COPPA Rule, and also told the defendants that certain of their apps appeared to be targeted to children under the age of 13," said the FTC. The commission filed a similar complaint against LAI Systems, which will pay a $60,000 civil penalty. The developer "failed to inform the ad networks that the apps were directed to children and did not provide notice or get consent from children’s parents for collecting and using the information," said the FTC. Both Retro Dreamer and LAI Systems did not comment at press time.

Global average connection speed increased slightly to 5.1 Mbps from the second quarter, and increased 14 percent from the previous year, said a report released by Akamai Wednesday. The Third Quarter State of the Internet Report said South Korea had the top average connection speed of 20.5 Mbps, and the global average peak connection speed declined by nearly 1 percent to 32.2 Mbps in the third quarter. In the U.S., 10 states had 10 percent or more of unique IP addresses connected to Akamai at average speeds of at least 25 Mbps, while the District of Columbia held the top spot with 22 percent unique IP addresses connected to Akamai, the report said.

Harman began producing connected car and audio systems for Hyundai’s Genesis G90, the first vehicle in the Korean carmaker’s new luxury brand, Harman said Tuesday. The embedded infotainment system includes 2D and 3D navigation, high-definition mapping, voice commands, Bluetooth, rich multimedia support and a 200 GB hard drive, Harman said. The interface, a 12-inch HD screen with touch control, is in the center console for control of entertainment, apps, media and phone information, navigation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and vehicle system data, said Harman. The vehicle is also outfitted with dual 9-inch rear seat monitors for connectivity and entertainment. High-speed embedded connectivity is provided through an integrated 4G/LTE modem. It has software that’s designed to rebuild details lost in compressed audio files. The Korean version also is the first mass-produced car with partially autonomous driving, Harman said.

Facebook began testing tools to update aspects of its name verification and reporting processes, it said in a news release Tuesday. The tools are meant to address the goals of reducing the number of people asked to verify that their Facebook profile name is the one people know them by, and making it easier for users to confirm their names if necessary. Facebook said it's adding additional steps to the names reporting process, which will "help our review teams better understand why someone is reporting a name, giving more information about a specific situation." The company is also testing a tool allowing those asked to verify their names to provide more information about their specific situation. Early next year, Facebook said, it will begin looking at other ways to reduce the number of people who go through the ID verification experience, while "preserving the safety of other people on the site." The new tools are being tested on a limited basis across mobile and desktop platforms in the U.S., Facebook said.

Mozilla said it's allowing Firefox users to block third-party trackers in private browsing mode, giving users more control over how they share data. The company said Tuesday in a blog post it recently introduced that functionality, which is based on the blocklist provided by its partner Disconnect. "A basic protection list is on by default in Private Browsing with Tracking Protection and it shields against many ad, analytics and social trackers," the post said. "If you want increased protection from tracking, Firefox now allows you to choose a ‘strict’ protection blocklist which will block additional content trackers such as those often found in video, photo and embeddable content." But Mozilla said some users have said some websites don't work properly when the strict list is used.

ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé urged the U.N. Tuesday to continue bringing together all Internet governance stakeholders to solve issues as part of a “polycentric approach” to Internet governance. “The Internet is the great equalizer in [a] world where inequality is still a key challenge,” he said. Chehadé was among the Internet industry executives addressing the U.N. as it began its two-day high-level meeting on its 10-year review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10). A draft WSIS+10 outcome document circulated before the U.N.’s high-level meeting endorses the central tenets of multistakeholder Internet governance and recommits to WSIS' Tunis Agreement. The draft document would also extend the Internet Governance Forum's mandate for another 10 years, as expected (see 1511200063).

DearMob released an upgrade for 5KPlayer for Windows version 3.2 that it said Friday is to optimize H.265/HEVC video codec playback of 4K and 8K UHD videos for “much smoother” H.265 streaming. The upgrade added a feature that allows the app to play a portion of damaged H.265 files, it said.

Basic streaming media sticks will be a popular gift item this holiday season, due to competitive pricing and expanded over-the-top services, said Barbara Kraus, Parks Associates research director, in a research note Friday. Fourteen percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a streaming media player by mid-2016, with 31 percent owning one by Q3, said Kraus. Next year, devices will differentiate through additional content options and new technologies such as 4K video, Kraus said. "Ultimately consumers want a simple, uninterrupted experience in accessing OTT content, so that will be the minimum expectation for any device, regardless of the cost.” Kraus said two-thirds of U.S. broadband households connect at least one device to the Internet, with Xbox the leading device used for streaming in 14 percent of U.S. broadband households. Following are PlayStation at just under 14 percent and Roku at 10 percent, it said.

New top-level domains “are not treated any differently than traditional domain names like .com or .org” within Google's search results, Google Domains Product Marketing Manager Chad Lancaster said in a blog post Thursday on “common questions” about new TLDs. “Domain names with new endings are shown in search just like any other domain name.” Lancaster suggested website owners prepare URL mapping from current URLs to their corresponding new URLs when moving to a new TLD, along with configuring for redirection of site contents to the new URLs. “It takes time to be fully processed in Google Search, but once it is, your new domain name is expected to work just like your old domain name,” Lancaster said.