Online privacy

The United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters' (GCHQ’s) methods in carrying out bulk interception of online communications violated privacy and failed to provide sufficient surveillance safeguards, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled in a test case judgment. But the Strasbourg court found that GCHQ’s regime for sharing sensitive digital intelligence with foreign governments was not illegal.

The Internet Association, a group representing more than 40 major internet and technology firms including Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet, said it backed modernizing US data privacy rules but wants a national approach that would preempt CA's new regulations that take effect in 2020.

Microsoft is calling on governments to follow a set of principles for cross-border data access policies, including independent judicial review and dispute resolution mechanisms. Microsoft’s Sept. 11 call for law enforcement data access standards follows the European Commission’s introduction recently of proposed e-evidence legislation. In March, Congress passed legislation governing how U.S. law enforcement can access data overseas.

The European Union’s executive arm joined Google and a group of free-speech advocates to oppose expanding the bloc’s “right to be forgotten” beyond European borders. In arguments before the EU’s top court, the executive arm, as well as countries including Ireland and Greece, argued that a global application of the EU right would stretch the EU’s privacy laws beyond their intended scope—echoing at least some of Google’s arguments. “We don’t see extraterritoriality” in EU privacy law, said Antoine Buchet, a lawyer for the bloc’s executive arm, during questioning by EU judges.

Google's alleged practice of recording location data about Android device owners even when they believe they have opted out of such tracking has sparked an investigation in AZ, where the state's attorney general could potentially levy a hefty fine against the search giant. The probe, initiated by Republican AZ Attorney General Mark Brnovich, could put pressure on other states and the federal government to follow suit, consumer advocates say — although Google previously insisted it did not deceive consumers about the way it collects and taps data on their whereabouts.

In what is likely a first in the industry, Vizio is on the verge of agreeing to display a class-action lawsuit message through its previously sold "Smart TV" televisions as part of a legal settlement. This message is meant to alert customers who bought the TV that they will be party to the forthcoming settlement and likely will get a small amount of money. The manufacturer has been under scrutiny since a 2015 revelation that it was snooping on its customers.

Washington officials once dazzled by the swashbuckling entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are now openly questioning the freedom they’ve bestowed on Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Emboldened by a president who’s openly contemptuous of the companies -- despite his own reliance on Twitter -- and intelligence reports linking popular online sites to election interference, lawmakers from both parties grilled top tech executives this week about whether, and how, Washington should rein them in. 

Tim Armstrong, a top Verizon executive, may be on the way out after struggling to turn the telecommunication company into a competitor to Google and Facebook, the Internet's preeminent digital advertising titans. Armstrong, the former AOL chief executive who joined Verizon when it purchased his company in 2015, is currently in charge of Oath, the Verizon subsidiary that contains AOL and Yahoo. Underscoring the story is the revelation that Verizon's digital advertising efforts have largely stalled.