Wall Street Journal
Iran’s Online Crackdown Prompts Smuggling of Starlink Kits
Iran’s government has throttled down bandwidths, stepped up filtering of social-media sites and taken down virtual private networks, according to analysts and reports by nongovernment organizations. It has also sought to intercept Starlink and other satellite internet devices, which are illegal in Iran. The number of Iranians with access to Starlink is a tiny fraction of the millions who use virtual private networks and other platforms to evade government restrictions, users say.
Microsoft Fined $64 Million in France Over Advertising Cookies
France’s privacy watchdog fined Microsoft for not making it easy enough for users of its Bing search engine to reject cookies used for online ads, as part of a broader increase of enforcing Europe’s privacy laws. France’s data-protection regulator, the CNIL, fined a Microsoft subsidiary in Ireland 60 million euros, equivalent to almost $64 million. The company hadn’t—until earlier in 2022—offered users the option to reject so-called cookies alongside the button to accept them, the regulator said.
Two Airbus Satellites Are Lost After Rocket Fails (Wall Street Journal)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 12/22/2022 - 06:48FTC Chairwoam Lina Khan: Our job is to prevent illegal mergers, not to make the world a better place. (Wall Street Journal)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 12/22/2022 - 06:48Omnibus Bill Expands TikTok Ban on Government Smartphones
The omnibus spending bill unveiled by lawmakers expands a ban on Chinese-owned TikTok on federal smartphones, but tough new measures targeting the tech industry didn’t make the cut. The inclusion of the proposal to ban TikTok comes after the Senate, led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), passed the governmentwide ban measure separately.
European Commission to Probe Broadcom’s $61 Billion Planned Takeover of VMware (Wall Street Journal)
Submitted by dclay@benton.org on Tue, 12/20/2022 - 10:58FCC Deadlock Shields Wireless Companies From Privacy Penalties
Cellphone carriers facing roughly $200 million in fines for sharing their customers’ locations are for now shielded from paying by the Federal Communications Commission’s partisan deadlock. The FCC has four commissioners—two Democrats and two Republicans—and needs at least three votes to move forward with fines it proposed years ago on the biggest wireless-service providers.