The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, at the request of the FTC, filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against three hedge fund companies and their management company Monday, DOJ said in a news release. Third Point and three Third Point funds violated premerger reporting laws in connection with their 2011 acquisition of stock in Yahoo, the FTC said in a news release Monday. The defendants claimed they were exempt from reporting to the U.S. antitrust authorities because the purchases were made solely for investment purposes, the agency said. But Third Point made investment decisions that were inconsistent with an investment-only intent, such as communicating with third parties to determine interest in becoming CEO or board candidates at Yahoo, the FTC said. The commission voted 3-2 to refer the complaint and proposed settlement to DOJ. Commissioners Maureen Ohlhausen and Joshua Wright, on his last day at the FTC (see 1508170051), voted no. “Commissioners Ohlhausen and Wright do not take issue with our conclusion that there is reason to believe that an HSR [Hart-Scott-Rodino Act] violation occurred, but they do question whether the public interest supports a referral of this matter for enforcement,” Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Commissioners Julie Brill and Terrell McSweeny wrote in a joint statement. “We conclude that it does.” In their joint dissenting statement, Ohlhausen and Wright said the majority misunderstood their reasoning for opposition. “Our opposition ... does not hinge solely on the risk of competitive harm from Third Point’s acquisitions of Yahoo Stock,” they said. “It is based on the lack of competitive harm.” DOJ also filed a proposed settlement that would settle the charges against Third Point and its funds if approved by the court, Justice said. Written comments on the proposed settlement will be subject to a 60-day public comment period, DOJ said. Third Point didn’t comment.

An advocacy group joined others in slamming Ashley Madison parent Avid Life Media (see 1508210042) for what they say is abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. ALM sent "numerous DMCA takedown notices to platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and others in an attempt to stop the dissemination of millions of names and email addresses of the site’s users,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz in a blog post Monday. “Regardless of whether their goal is a noble one, their use of the DMCA is problematic.” Facts like names, addresses and phone numbers can’t be copyrighted, he said. Biographical descriptions and pickup lines can be copyrighted by users, but ALM still wouldn’t be able to send a DMCA takedown notice, he said. Ashley Madison users’ could transfer copyrights to ALM, but Stoltz said that is a difficult and rarely done process. ALM’s DMCA takedown notices have been vague and are “unlikely to curtail access to the data,” Stoltz said. Millions want to see the data disappear, but misusing DMCA “encourages more abuse, such as censoring political commentary and criticism,” he said. ALM didn't comment.

The Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) released a document Monday that extends its quality of service (QoS) architecture to cover the home network. RD012 outlines requirements for QoS functions such as classification and queuing within powerline or Wi-Fi adaptors that carry Internet data between home gateways and connected smart home devices. The HGI document also explains how multicast content such as Internet TV should be handled by home network adaptors. HGI Chief Technology and Business Officer Duncan Bees said the technical requirements were developed with input from service providers, and HGI has considered a range of technical requirements for the home network that provide guidance for manufacturers. Another recommendation published this month: RD031, which sets requirements for power management of home network devices for energy savings by allowing devices to enter a quiescent state when not actively processing data traffic or performing primary functions, HGI said. The energy savings could be either customer-initiated by turning off a set-top box when not in use, or it could be automatically initiated, HGI said. RD031 defines two functions: network connectivity proxy and the energy controller that controls the power states of connected devices, taking into account the latest European Commission Regulations about power consumption limits for networked standby products, HGI said. “Power saving has been a major focus of service providers for some time and the new work extends beyond consideration of a single box to define coordination among different devices,” Bees said. “It supports energy-saving Smart Home services" and HGI hopes to see a "unified approach to power management of connected devices in the home based upon this architecture.”

A “strong majority” of the 151 Google Express Services workers in Palo Alto, California, voted Friday to join the San Leandro-based Teamsters Local 853, the union said. Workers at Apple, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo previously joined the local. Google Express workers have raised concerns about their compensation and working conditions, saying they're limited to two-year contracts via Google’s Adecco contractor. "It's surprising that workers who warehouse and ship for Google Express would be subjected to such Third World conditions," said Teamsters International Vice President Rome Aloise in a news release. The unionization announcement occurred after Google said it planned to close its San Francisco and Palo Alto Google Express delivery locations. Adecco believes “our associates are better off directly dealing with us as their employer rather than involving a union,” a spokeswoman said. “However, we are supportive of any direction freely chosen by our associates.” Google didn’t comment.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the FTC in the agency’s privacy case against Wyndham Worldwide, Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro wrote in a decision Monday. Other circuit judges included Jane Roth and Anthony Scirica. After Wyndham’s computer systems were breached three times in 2008 and 2009 by hackers, resulting in hundreds of thousands of consumers having their personal and financial information stolen, the FTC alleged that Wyndham’s conduct was unfair and its privacy policy was deceptive. A federal district court denied Wyndham’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The 3rd Circuit granted interlocutory appeal on two issues: Whether the FTC has authority to regulate cybersecurity under the unfairness prong of its Section 5 authority and whether Wyndham had fair notice from the FTC that its cybersecurity practices fell short. Ultimately, the appeals court sided with the FTC. “The three requirements in § 45(n) may be necessary rather than sufficient conditions of an unfair practice, but we are not persuaded that any other requirements proposed by Wyndham pose a serious challenge to the FTC’s claim here,” Ambro wrote. “Wyndham repeatedly argued there is no FTC interpretation of § 45(a) or (n) to which the federal courts must defer in this case, and, as a result, the courts must interpret the meaning of the statute as it applies to Wyndham’s conduct in the first instance,” he said. “Thus, Wyndham cannot argue it was entitled to know with ascertainable certainty the cybersecurity standards by which the FTC expected it to conform,” Ambro said. “Instead, the company can only claim that it lacked fair notice of the meaning of the statute itself -- a theory it did not meaningfully raise and that we strongly suspect would be unpersuasive under the facts of this case.” Wyndham had no immediate comment. The ruling "reaffirms the FTC’s authority to hold companies accountable for failing to safeguard consumer data,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said. “It is not only appropriate, but critical, that the FTC has the ability to take action on behalf of consumers when companies fail to take reasonable steps to secure sensitive consumer information.”

LG’s G Watch R becomes Wi-Fi capable with the most recent Android Wear update, allowing users to receive notifications and other information without a Bluetooth connection, said LG Friday. Over the next several days, LG’s G Watch, G Watch R and Watch Urbane will receive the Firmware Over-the-Air update, said the company. All three smartwatches will support interactive watch faces available from Google Play. With the interactive faces, users can tap on specific areas of the display to see additional information, said the company. The latest update also will allow LG Android Wear devices to support app-specific functions such as displaying a four-day weather forecast or performing translations in multiple foreign languages on the watch itself without having to use a connected phone, said the company.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek issued an apology to users Friday for the confusion its new terms and conditions and privacy policy (see 1508180012) have caused, particularly on what kinds of information the streaming music service accesses and what the company does with the data. In its new privacy policy, Spotify asks permission to access photos, mobile device location, voice controls and contacts, Ek wrote in a blog post. “If you don’t want to share this kind of information, you don’t have to.” The information will be used to allow users to customize their experience, he said. The new privacy policy will be updated to reflect the additional explanations Ek provided, he said.

A year after Yelp publicized its gender and ethnic diversity data, the company has had a 124 percent growth rate in the number of women in engineering globally, an 86 percent growth rate in the number of African-Americans/black employees in the U.S., and an 88 percent growth rate in the number of Hispanics/Latinos in the country, Head-Diversity and Inclusion Rachel Williams wrote in a blog post Thursday. “We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the course of a year,” Williams said. “My vision for diversity and inclusion is to be less tethered to specific numbers and to be more focused on ensuring that Yelp continues to be a 'Best Place to Work' for all of our employees, no matter their age, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability or economic status.” To help create an inclusive environment, Yelp is offering unconscious bias training, working with community organizations and nonprofits, and has elevated employee-driven and grassroots groups, Williams said. Yelp recruiters have been encouraged to recruit from underrepresented communities, she said.

The Education Department is seeking public input on its draft guidance on protecting student medical privacy, wrote its Chief Privacy Officer Kathleen Styles in a blog post this week. “Recently, the Department has been asked if it is possible and/or appropriate for campus officials to share confidential medical records from on-campus services with university attorneys in the context of litigation between a university and a student,” Styles wrote. This sharing is potentially “allowable” if the university attorneys have a “legitimate educational interest” in the records, she said. But sharing a student’s sensitive medical records “may discourage the use of medical services provided on campus,” Styles said. Citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Styles said the department wants to “set the expectation that, with respect to litigation between institutions of higher education and students, institutions generally should not share student medical records with school attorneys or courts, without a court order or written consent.” Litigation directly related to the medical treatment itself or to the payment of medical treatment would be exempt, she said. Public comments on the proposed guidance will be accepted until Oct. 2.

ICANN has “every expectation” it will be able to complete the ongoing Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition process before its contract with NTIA expires Sept. 30, 2016, ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé said Thursday during a conference call. NTIA said Monday that it intends to extend its contract with ICANN to administer the IANA functions a full year beyond the existing Sept. 30, 2015, contract deadline to allow additional time to plan and execute the transition. That extension provides some additional breathing room for the IANA transition but doesn’t leave much time for additional delays, stakeholders told us (see 1508190064). Any further extension beyond Sept. 30, 2016, would be problematic because it would cause uncertainty among ICANN stakeholders about the IANA transition’s future, given that the extended deadline will occur so close to the 2016 presidential election, Chehadé said. The election itself shouldn’t “have a direct impact” on the IANA transition because of the “almost complete consensus” among members of Congress about the transition’s value, he said.