Current statutes on when law enforcement officials can access consumers’ electronic communications are more than 30 years old and failed to keep pace with developments in commerce and technology, said a white paper released Tuesday from Bancroft law firm partners Viet Dinh and Jeffrey Harris. The paper identifies what they see as several deficiencies in the current statutory framework and analyzes several recent legislative proposals like the Email Privacy Act and the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad (Leads) Act, and offers suggestions on how to improve the legislation.

Many wearable and mobile health app users don’t feel their data is sufficiently secured by manufacturers, according to a survey by Healthline, a health information and technology provider, a news release said. The survey, which polled 3,679 Healthline.com readers June 17-24, found 25 percent of respondents don’t believe their personal health data is secure on a Fitbit or a health tracking app, the release said. About half of respondents, 45 percent, said they were concerned hackers may try to steal their personal health data from their wearable, it said. Lingering and noticeable concerns about protection of personal health information “should be a warning bell for manufacturers to ensure that the security of this new technology is a top priority,” said Healthline CEO Dean Stephens. The survey also found that despite security concerns, consumers “want the health and fitness support that wearable devices provide,” the release said. The average consumer uses two to four health or fitness apps, with 43 percent of respondents saying they stop using an app within six months of using it, the release said.

Medium, the social networking site created by two of the founders of Twitter, updated its rules to “prohibit public shaming, revenge porn, and posting private or confidential information about others in order to harass,” wrote Medium Head of Legal Sarah Agudo in a message to users Monday. Every online social platform has to balance fostering free expression and creating a place where “everyone is free to be who they are,” the post said. Surprising and controversial views are still encouraged on the site to maintain “the kind of impassioned engagement we want here,” Agudo said. But Medium has “decided to draw the line” at allowing speech that “shuts down more expression than it opens up, by causing silence, retreat, isolation, or intimidation.” The new rules aren't about just preventing harassment, but also about “fostering a place we’re all proud of and want to come to every day to see what’s going on,” Agudo said.

The Internet Association plans its first policy conference Oct. 12 in Menlo Park, California, a news release said Monday. Confirmed speakers include Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sepulveda and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, the release said.

The European Commission should “investigate tactics reportedly used by Apple to drive out ‘freemium’ (commercial sponsored) streaming music and unfairly dominate the streaming music business,” Consumer Watchdog said in a letter to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a news release said. Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court and Privacy Project Director John Simpson sent a similar letter to the FTC and Justice Department last week (see 1507220066) and asked the agencies to investigate the company for possible antitrust violations. “Apple is utilizing its market power in much the way the company did in setting e-book prices,” the letters said.

There was a delay in notifying Pandora customers to changes in its privacy policy that were effective June 30 (see 1507220018), a spokesman told us Friday. Pandora hadn't updated the policy since December 2013 and there was no requirement that customers be notified before changes took place, he said. The company intended to notify users the day before or the day the changes took place, but due to the high number of Pandora users, emails alerting them to the changes were phased in over the course of a couple of weeks, he said.

Yahoo will include language in job postings indicating the company prefers engineering candidates with accessibility experience, Accessible Media Director Larry Goldberg wrote in a blog post Thursday. A number of Yahoo’s tech industry partners also will include that preference in job postings, it said. “This is a huge step toward ensuring that products across the industry are designed with every individual in mind,” Goldberg said. “While making all tech products accessible is not mandated by law, Yahoo and our peers believe that it is simply the right thing to do,” he said. “We want to make sure that our users have equal access to the services we provide, whether or not they’re disabled.”

Imposters pretending to be from the FTC are offering money to OPM data breach victims, and “all you need to do is give him some information,” wrote FTC Consumer and Business Education Division attorney Lisa Weintraub Schifferle in a blog post Wednesday. One scammer has identified himself as Dave Johnson from the FTC’s office in Las Vegas, she said. The FTC doesn’t have an office in Las Vegas and won’t ask for personal information or give money to OPM data breach victims, she said. Don’t trust caller ID, don’t wire money or put it on a prepaid debit card, and don’t provide personal or financial information unless you initiated a call and you know the number is correct, Weintraub Schifferle said. “Never provide financial information by email,” she said.

Pandora updated its terms of use and privacy policy effective June 30, the company said in an email to users Wednesday. Changes include making it easier for artists to connect with users, and for users to control how artists connect with them; two new policies -- on community and content and on intellectual property -- were created about the content a user posts on Pandora; updates were made in how Pandora can contact users; and a provision was added to the privacy policy to ensure the company complied with the EU-Swiss safe harbor privacy principles, and describes how Pandora uses data for measurement purposes and how users can control their participation in those measurement studies. “If you don't agree to these updated agreements, you may close your account and you won't be bound by them,” the email said.

Amazon and Warner Music Group are among 10 new members joining the Digital Entertainment Group, the group said Wednesday. Other new members are CenturyLink, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, MAI, Outpost Media, Parrot Analytics, Screen Engine, V2Solutions and W2O Group, DEG said. "DEG continues to adjust its agenda to serve the needs of the full home entertainment in order to help support the transformation of the industry,” DEG President Amy Jo Smith said in a statement.