congress

Senator Josh Hawley announced the introduction of legislation that would ban loot boxes, pay-to-win, and other monetization practices that target children. This includes video game industry practices that entice players to spend real money for competitive advantages over other players. Another...

T-Mobile agreed to acquire Sprint last year, but the companies have run into some regulatory hurdles since then. But Congress is holding a hearing on the merger right now, and they're streaming it live. Thanks to cageymaru for the tip. Check out the stream here. The House Commerce Subcommittee...

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Alphabet Inc. unit's social media practices. After a year of avoiding the spotlight -- and the political scrutiny that's befallen his peers at Facebook and Twitter -- Pichai is set to deliver his first-ever...

First Orion sells call protection solutions to tens of millions of mobile subscribers and the company has released their inaugural 2018 Scam Call Trends and Projections Report which analyzes over 50 billion calls made to their customers in the past 18 months. In 2017 3.7% of all calls made to...

Google has admitted in a letter to Congress that it still allows apps to data mine Gmail accounts, read emails, and share user data freely with others by using tools provided by Google. These tools allow 3rd party companies to access data about purchases, travel, family and friendship...

Last year Reuters published a story that described how foreign defense agencies were given access to source code of software that was also sold to the U.S. military. These agencies were looking for vulnerabilities in the software and this knowledge could be used to hack said software. In...

Reuters is reporting that four senior House Republicans have sent letters to the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet questioning location data, mobile phone privacy and the handling of customer data. The goal of the panel is, to quote the letter: "to probe the companies' representation of third-party...

Facebook released a new 700 page document revealing 52 corporations that held contracts with the social media giant to create data sharing apps to make Facebook more effectively integrated into their devices. Facebook answered many of the 1,200 questions that members of Congress requested of...

DHS is seeking new legislation from Congress giving them new powers to disable or destroy threatening drones. They say new legislation will enable them to provide protection from security risks of unmanned aircraft. Further, terrorist are using drones more and more so I understand where they are...

In the latest news from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11 the committee announced on their website today. The announcement comes after lawmakers formally asked Zuckerberg to testify on March 23rd. E&C...

Reuters is reporting that U.S lawmakers have formally asked Mark Zuckerberg to explain how 50 million users' data ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica. The request comes from The House Energy and Commerce Committee, and no date has been set for the testimony. Things just keep going...

U.S markets regulators from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be providing testimony to the Senate Banking Committee over the risks virtual currencies pose to investors and the financial system. There is currently no single U.S...

Congress has some questions about Meltdown and Spectre, and they are calling out those involved. Members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce have drafted letters to the heads of several companies involved in the security flaw. The companies whose CEO's received letters are; Apple, Amazon...

A new bill introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo hopes to stop states from banning broadband competition. The Community Broadband Act (HR 4814) declares that no state may pass legislation that would "prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting any public provider from providing, to any person or any...

Congress is currently debating the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 and part of this renewal contains changes to Section 702 that could possibly expand warrantless surveillance of American citizens. Take a look at the language of the draft and consider whether or not you agree with...

The US Congress wants to take a look at AI and define it so they can figure out how to regulate it. In order to make this happen, Maria Cantwell has drafted a bill that establishes a committee on AI and the committe will be responsible for advising the government on regulation and...

I am fairly sure that most of our readers are very aware of Net Neutrality and what it is all about and that it going away is likely not a good thing for all of us. If you have not taken the time to write the FCC and your Congressman, Battle for the Net makes that very simple, and I encourage...

Tech dirt has the, well, the dirt, on some very early stage legislation working its way through congress. It would give victims of hacking legal protection to hack their attackers back. When I first read this article, I got a bad vibe from it, as it sounded like vigilante justice, but...