The ICANN community should consider requiring registrants to input WHOIS registration data only in the languages and scripts they are skilled at, and require that data elements be tagged with languages and scripts in use, the Expert Working Group on Internationalized Registration Data (IRD) said Friday in a report. ICANN had asked the IRD working group to determine submission and display requirements for IRD and to produce an IRD data model that would match those requirements. Internationalizing registration data should focus on the capabilities of the data-submitting user and use of existing standards, and should be able to be easily extended to “tailor to the evolution of data elements displayed by directory services for various TLD registries and registrars,” the IRD working group said. ICANN should now ask the Generic Names Supporting Organization to follow up on the IRD report, the working group said.

The FTC sued the marketers of a line of weight-loss supplements who threatened to enforce “gag clause” provisions against consumers who posted negative reviews and testimonials online, citing a violation of the terms and conditions, an FTC news release said Monday. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida last week, the FTC alleged Roca Labs, Roca Labs Nutraceutical USA and their principals caused harm to consumers by “unfairly barring purchasers from sharing truthful negative comments about the defendants and their products,” as well as for deceptive advertising practices, the release said. The defendants would pay 50 percent of the product's price for those who posted positive reviews and threatened those who posted negative reviews that they would have to pay full price -- hundreds of dollars more than advertised -- if they violated the gag clause provisions, it said. The vote to issue the complaint was unanimous. Roca Labs agreed last week to a temporary restraining order regarding its deceptive marketing practices and gag clause. Its website is temporarily down, and the company’s Facebook page is no longer available. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, applauded the FTC’s action. “Consumers should have the right to share their experiences and honest opinions of any business,” he said in a statement Monday. Attempts by companies to suppress that right through non-disparagement clauses and threats of litigation are unfair, Schatz said. The action "sends a strong signal to business owners that tactics to intimidate consumers will not go unchallenged,” he said. Earlier this year, Schatz introduced the Consumer Review Freedom Act (S-2044), with Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., which protects consumers from unfair non-disparagement clauses that are appearing in a growing number of non-negotiable form contracts.

The U.S. Mission to the European Union issued a statement criticizing the European Commission’s Advocate General’s recent opinion in Maximillian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner (see 1509230001) Monday, citing “numerous inaccurate assertions about intelligence practices of the United States.” The U.S. “does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone, including ordinary European citizens,” the statement said. The Prism program (Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization and Management) discussed in the opinion is “targeted against particular valid foreign intelligence targets, is duly authorized by law, and strictly complies with a number of publicly disclosed controls and limitations,” it said. The opinion fails to take into account that President Barack Obama “has taken unprecedented steps to enhance transparency and public accountability regarding U.S. intelligence practices, and to strengthen policies to ensure that all persons are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their nationality or place of residence,” it said. The Safe Harbor Framework is a living document that can be improved, it said. The Advocate General’s reasoning in his opinion “undercuts the abilities of other countries, businesses and citizens to rely upon negotiated agreements with the European Commission,” it said. Citing the importance of privacy and trade benefits, the U.S. Mission said it would work closely with the European Commission to improve the Safe Harbor Framework and asked the European Court of Justice to note the inaccuracies in the opinion and consider the “significant harm” that would occur if the free flow of information would end. The Electronic Privacy Information Center released a statement Monday siding with the opinion, saying the U.S. engages in routine and mass surveillance of persons outside the U.S., including ordinary European citizens. The routine collection of Internet activity gathered by Internet companies and shared with U.S. intelligence agencies has continued despite “extensive public opposition,” EPIC said. Congress ended the bulk collection of domestic telephone records by passing the USA Freedom Act, but failed to reform foreign intelligence collection under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or surveillance authorized by Executive Order 12333, EPIC said.

China and the U.S. reached a “common understanding” that neither nation will “conduct or knowingly support cybertheft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage,” President Barack Obama said Friday during a news conference. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Washington for a state visit, told reporters that China and the U.S. will “step up crime cases, investigation assistance and information sharing” on cyber issues. China has been under fire for engaging in cyberespionage against the U.S. but has denied engaging in attacks like the recent Office of Personnel Management data breach. Obama said during the news conference that he has raised the U.S.'s “very serious concerns” about cyberespionage and “indicated that it has to stop.” China and the U.S. will “explore the formulation of appropriate state behavior norms of cyberspace,” Xi said. There’s "a difference between an agreement on paper and having the Chinese government, including the People’s Liberation Army, actually stop conducting and supporting cyber attacks on U.S. companies," said Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a statement. Senate Intelligence "will be paying very close attention to how faithfully this agreement is implemented." The Information Technology Industry Council praised the China-U.S. agreement. The agreement “finally starts a sustained dialogue where there was very little communication," ITI President Dean Garfield said in a statement. "It illustrates a spirit of cooperation on a sensitive issue, which is a positive signal to technology companies.”

Sixty-two percent of U.S. consumers and 77 percent of millennials go online via computer or mobile device to research tech accessories before deciding which to buy, said a CEA retail accessories report. Despite the online research, fewer consumers -- 30 percent via computer and 7 percent on mobile devices -- are making their final purchases online, said CEA. Consumers' top reasons for shopping online via a computer or mobile device are price, convenience and ease of browsing, but only 7 percent use "click to purchase" via mobile, it said. “Consumers want to ask questions and get demonstrations during the purchasing process," said Steve Koenig, CEA senior director, market research. Online retailers and manufacturers need to look for "innovative ways to accommodate this dynamic,” said Koenig. Features including live chats, short video demos or online tutorials can help retailers increase the likelihood of winning the sale, he said. Revenue for the accessory category (excluding headphones) will reach roughly $9.6 billion this year, up 4 percent from last year, said CEA. Unit and revenue growth for smartphone cases, chargers and portable chargers are expected to see double-digit growth in 2015, it said. Accessories make up 5 percent of consumer tech industry revenue, said CEA.

A petition asks Google's YouTube to remove “shock” videos, saying that they are a form of cyberbullying. Videos iPetitions is asking YouTube to delete from the site feature images and video of people with visible differences to “exploit, belittle and dehumanise” the individuals for entertainment purposes. “These videos are not informing or educating, they are exploiting and bullying and dehumanising,” the petition said. “Is YouTube no more than a modern-day Victorian freak show?” Google didn't comment directly on the petition. It directed us to their flagging system and policies on bullying.

Apple is allowing the new app Hinder, which allows users to browse where their elected officials stand on women's rights issues like birth control, abortion and sex education, to be included in its app store, a group said. Apple’s decision to make the app available was announced in a news release Wednesday by UltraViolet, which had a petition signed by more than 30,000 people that asked Apple make the app available. Direct tweets from nearly 1,000 individuals asking for the app to be available also helped convince Apple to change its mind in less than 24 hours, the release said.

The copyright holders of the Dallas Buyers Club are suing an array of Comcast broadband customers for allegedly pirating the film via the Popcorn Time software program. The suit, filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, asks for a permanent injunction stopping the John Doe defendants from using the Internet to distribute the film or make it available for distribution, as well as a permanent injunction enjoining them from using any peer-to-peer software like Popcorn Time to download or distribute content without a license, and unspecified financial damages. Dallas Buyers Club LLC said it plans to use initial discovery to subpoena Comcast for the identities of each of the Oregon defendants, based on their IP addresses. Comcast isn't a defendant in the suit and declined to comment.

The global average Internet connection speed increased 17 percent year-over-year, according to a State of the Internet Report for the second quarter of 2015 by Akamai Technologies, which was released Wednesday. Other findings include that Washington, D.C., “unseated Delaware in the highest average and peak connection speeds,” and that Gabon, Cameroon, Nepal and Iraq experience significant Internet disruptions, an Akamai news release said. “We continued to see healthy increases in key connection speed metrics, particularly on a year-over-year basis,” said David Belson, editor of the report. “The improvement in connection speeds is vital as more content, not the least of which is video at increasingly higher levels of quality, is being delivered over the Internet,” Belson said. “Ongoing progress and innovation in these areas, as evidenced in the report, will play a key role in helping address consumer demand for access to content where and when they want it,” he said.

ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) has decided to “continue advancing” its IANA transition proposal “as planned, aiming to make as much progress as possible” by the time ICANN stakeholders meet in Dublin Oct. 18-22, ICG leaders said Tuesday in a blog post. ICG found that a majority of public comments submitted through Sept. 8 (see 1509090053) support the proposal, though “in some cases that support was qualified by suggestions, questions, and criticism that the ICG is working hard to synthesize and address as appropriate,” the group's leaders said. ICG's decision to adhere to its planned timeline “as much as possible without sacrificing quality for speed is notable in light of indications” that the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN's Accountability's (CCWG-Accountability) work on its proposal for changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms is likely to be delayed, ICG leaders said. The group said it's “closely following the work of [CCWG-Accountability] and expects to have more clarity about the trajectory of [its] work after that group meets at the end of this week.”