law

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Germany's updated hate speech law requires sites to report users to police
Privacy advocates are worried the latest amendment to Germany's NetzDG law further erodes the free speech rights of the country's internet users.
Microsoft won't sell facial recognition to police without federal regulation
Microsoft is joining Amazon in halting police access to facial recognition until there's regulation in place.
ACLU sues Clearview AI over alleged privacy violations
The ACLU has sued Clearview AI for allegedly violating Illinois privacy law through its face recognition-based surveillance technology.
Huawei CFO is one crucial step closer to being extradited to the US
A Canadian court has ruled that Huawei's financial chief Meng Wanzhou is eligible for extradition.
District judge rules FBI needs a warrant to access your lock screen
A Washington state judge ruled that the FBI needs a search warrant to look at a suspect's lock screen.
Canada fines Facebook almost $6.5 million over 'false' data privacy claims
Facebook has been handed another massive fine over the way it handles user data.
AG Barr seeks 'legislative solution' to make companies unlock phones
Attorney General William Barr wants to force companies like Apple to unlock phones recovered in criminal investigations.
France gives social media sites one hour to delete criminal content
France passed a law that will give social media companies like Facebook and Twitter 60 minutes to delete content related to pedophelia and terrorism.
California sues Uber and Lyft for allegedly misclassifying drivers
California is putting AB5 to work as it sues Uber and Lyft for classifying drivers as contractors rather than employees.
Supreme Court broadcasts oral arguments live for the first time
The Supreme Court has broadcast oral arguments live for the first time, including online, as COVID-19 prevented in-person access.
Senate bill would set privacy requirements for COVID-19 tracking
A group of senators want to enshrine privacy protections in COVID-19 contact tracing apps through legislation, but there are concerns it won't do enough.
Israel barred from COVID-19 phone tracking without new legislation
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the government must draft a new law if it wants to keep tracking phones of COVID-19 sufferers.
Judge denies Twitter effort to reveal US surveillance requests
A judge has ruled that Twitter's demand to reveal exact surveillance request numbers would risk national security.
Court finds algorithm bias studies don't violate US anti-hacking law
Researchers should be free to look for bias in website algorithms in the future. A federal court in DC has ruled in a lawsuit against Attorney General William Barr that studies aimed at detecting discrimination in online algorithms don't violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The government argued that the Act made it illegal to violate a site's terms of service through some investigative methods (such as submitting false info for research), but Judge John Bates determined that the terms only raised the possibility of civil liability, not criminal cases.
Court rejects Trump's ongoing fight to block critics on Twitter
President Trump's attempt to overturn a ruling that prevents him from blocking Twitter critics has been shot down -- at least for now. An appeals court has denied the Trump administration's request for a review of the decision after a majority of judges decided a review wasn't necessary. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker described the original decision as a "straightforward application" of existing actions and precedent. If Trump is going to use his personal Twitter account for official statements (and he does), that account becomes a public forum where critics are allowed to voice their disagreements.
‘Dreams’ player forced to remove his fan-made Mario assets
Sony's long-awaited Dreams arrived earlier this year, a LittleBigPlanet-esque wonderland in which players can build almost any kind of world they can imagine -- but only if it doesn't infringe on copyright, apparently. According to Dreams content creator @Piece_of_Craft, "a big video game company" has come after him for his use of Nintendo's Super Mario character on the platform.
President Trump signs bill to help rural carriers replace Huawei gear
The US government is about to help rural carriers give Chinese telecom equipment the boot. President Trump has signed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (the Secure and Trusted Telecommunications Networks Act in the Senate), mandating that US telecoms rip out and replace any "suspect foreign network equipment" -- effectively, Huawei and ZTE equipment. It tasks the FCC with setting up a compensation program so that rural providers can afford to remove the hardware, improes security information sharing to prevent future uses and bars networks from using FCC-administered funds to buy equipment from companies representing a "national security risk."
France threatens large fines and possible jail time for e-bike mods
France does not look kindly upon e-bike owners that hot rod their wheels. The country has just introduced a law that could see "offenders" slapped with a maximum fine of €30,000 (US$34,000), and up to a year in jail. And they could have their driving license suspended for up to three years.
California ends opposition to T-Mobile and Sprint merger
New York isn't the only big state dropping its fight against T-Mobile's merger with Sprint. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has dropped the state's challenge against the merger after reaching a settlement that theoretically addresses objections to the carrier buyout. The expanded T-Mobile will have to guarantee affordable plans in California for a minimum of five years, including a plan with 2GB of data for $25 per month. The network will also have to hold to plans from February 2019 for five years (two year longer than the FCC asked for) and give 10 million low-income households access to 100GB of free broadband per year, including a free mobile hotspot.
Clarence Thomas laments ruling that let FCC kill net neutrality
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't have many fans among open internet advocates. His decision in the 2005 Brand X broadband case let the FCC classify internet service any way it liked as long as there was a justification, giving Ajit Pai's FCC the tools it needed to kill net neutrality. However, he appears to have had a change of heart. In the lone dissent on a case addressing the IRS' interpretation of American law, Thomas said he felt Brand X was "inconsistent" with the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act and other approaches to interpreting laws. He added that he would "revisit" his decision if he could.

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