Ars Technica
Trump administration wants to track 14 million US visitors’ social media history
Want to visit the United States in a non-immigrant capacity? Should the State Department get its way, your application to enter the country may soon hinge on coughing up five years of your online history. The Department of State's proposal would expand this request, which is currently required to apply for an immigrant visa.
Comcast supports ban on paid prioritization—with an exception
Comcast would support a ban on paid prioritization as long as there is an exception for "specialized services" that benefit consumers, said Comcast senior executive VP David Cohen. Cohen's suggestion of a paid-prioritization ban with an exception for specialized services is similar to an early version of network neutrality rules that was passed in 2010 but thrown out in court in 2014.
“Google’s use of the Java API packages was not fair,” appeals court rules
On March 27, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Oracle, finding that Google may owe billions in damages. Nearly 7.5 years after the original lawsuit was filed, the case will now be sent back down to federal court in San Francisco to figure out how much Google should pay. "Google’s use of the Java API packages was not fair," the court ruled. In October 2016 when the case was appealed, after Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems and acquired the rights to Java, it sued Google in 2010. Oracle claimed that Google had infringed copyrights and patents related to Java.
AT&T/Verizon lobbyists to “aggressively” sue states that enact net neutrality
USTelecom, a lobby group that represents AT&T, Verizon, and other large telecommunication companies, plans to sue states and cities that try to enforce network neutrality rules. "Broadband providers have worked hard over the past 20 years to deploy ever more sophisticated, faster and higher-capacity networks, and uphold net neutrality protections for all," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter wrote.
Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from Android phones
Recently, a New Zealand man was looking through the data Facebook had collected from him in an archive he had pulled down from the social networking site. While scanning the information Facebook had stored about his contacts, Dylan McKay discovered something distressing: Facebook also had about two years' worth of phone call metadata from his Android phone, including names, phone numbers, and the length of each call made or received. Facebook uses phone-contact data as part of its friend recommendation algorithm.
AT&T suffers another blow in court over throttling of “unlimited” data
Judge Edward Chen of US District Court for the Northern District of California has revived a lawsuit that angry customers filed against AT&T over the company's throttling of unlimited mobile data plans. The decision comes two years after the same judge decided that customers could only have their complaints heard individually in arbitration instead of in a class-action lawsuit. The 2016 ruling in AT&T's favor was affirmed by a federal appeals court.
New York says Charter lied about new broadband, threatens to revoke its franchise
The New York Public Service Commission has threatened to terminate Charter Communications' franchise agreements with New York City, saying the cable company failed to meet broadband construction requirements and may not have paid all of its required franchise fees.
Entire broadband industry will help FCC defend net neutrality repeal
The biggest lobby groups representing broadband providers will help the Federal Communications Commission defend the repeal of network neutrality rules in court. March 15, three trade groups that collectively represent every major home Internet and mobile broadband provider in the US filed motions to intervene in the case on behalf of the FCC. The motions for leave to intervene were filed by NCTA–The Internet & Television Association, CTIA–The Wireless Association, and USTelecom–The Broadband Association. NCTA represents cable companies such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, and Altice.
Why Washington state isn’t scared of lawsuits over net neutrality law
Washington, the first US state to pass a network neutrality law after the repeal of federal rules, might have to get ready for a court battle. Washington's legislature and governor defied the Federal Communications Commission's claim that states cannot implement their own net neutrality rules, and they are likely to face a lawsuit from Internet service providers or their lobby groups. But the legislation's primary sponsor, State Rep Drew Hansen (D-Bainbridge Island), is confident that the state will win in court.