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Acting Federal Trade Commision Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday, urging Congressional action to revive the commission’s authority in light of a Supreme Court decision last week. Meanwhile, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark WarnerMark Robert WarnerSenate Democrats push Biden over raising refugee cap Hillicon Valley: Acting FTC chair urges Congress to revive agency authority after Supreme Court ruling | Senate Intel panel working on breach notification bill Senate Intelligence panel working on legislation around mandatory cyber breach notification MORE (D-Va.) announced upcoming legislation from his committee around mandatory data breach notification, and two key senators hinted at renewed action to create federal standards on self-driving cars.
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SLAUGHTER SEEKS CONGRESSIONAL ACTION: Acting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter on Tuesday called for Congress to pass legislation that would revive the agency’s ability to return money to constituents harmed by companies found to engage in deceptive practices.
Slaughter testified before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection and commerce roughly a week after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the FTC’s authority under a provision known as Section 13(b) does not grant the agency the ability to obtain equitable monetary relief.
“These recent decisions have significantly limited the Commission’s primary and most effective tool for providing refunds to harmed consumers, and, if Congress does not act promptly, the FTC will be far less effective in its ability to protect consumers and execute its law enforcement mission,” Slaughter testified.
Read more about the hearing.
INCOMING BREACH NOTIFICATION BILL: The Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill to create some form of limited data breach mandatory reporting for the private sector, with the goal of preventing future major foreign cyberattacks on critical organizations.
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Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Tuesday that the legislation had grown out of public and private hearings held by the committee following the SolarWinds breach, which was believed to be carried out by Russian hackers and compromised nine federal agencies.
The federal government was made aware of the massive breach only when cybersecurity group FireEye, also compromised by the hackers, came forward in December to report the incident voluntarily, a move that wasn’t legally required.
“This is what the committee is working on in a very bipartisan way,” Warner said during a virtual event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Can we create a structure that would allow some limited mandatory reporting for government contractors and critical infrastructure that doesn’t get to the full data breach negotiations?”
Read more about the legislative effort here.
WHEELS BEGIN TO ROLL: Two key bipartisan senators are ramping up efforts to create standards for testing and deploying autonomous vehicles, with the renewed effort coming after years of roadblocks in the Senate to create a nationwide framework around self-driving cars.
Sens. Gary PetersGary PetersHillicon Valley: Acting FTC chair urges Congress to revive agency authority after Supreme Court ruling | Senate Intel panel working on breach notification bill Senators ramp up efforts to create standards for self-driving cars Senate Democrats’ campaign arm taps Ossoff to chair environmental council MORE (D-Mich.) and John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneSchumer warns Democrats willing to go it alone on infrastructure Pandemic casts shadow over Biden’s first address to Congress Hillicon Valley: Acting FTC chair urges Congress to revive agency authority after Supreme Court ruling | Senate Intel panel working on breach notification bill MORE (R-S.D.) on Tuesday strongly argued for the need to advance legislation around autonomous vehicles in order to decrease traffic fatalities and increase the mobility of the elderly and those with disabilities.
“One of the most important opportunities we can seize is autonomous vehicle technologies,” Peters, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports, said during a hearing on the future of automotive mobility Tuesday afternoon.
Read more here.
POLICE DATA EXPOSED: Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) acknowledged Tuesday that its systems had been breached by hackers, who claimed to have stolen some of the department’s data files while demanding a ransom.
In a statement to NBC News, a police spokesperson confirmed the breach and indicated that the FBI was assisting in the investigation.
“We are aware of unauthorized access on our server,” said the spokesperson. “While we determine the full impact and continue to review activity, we have engaged the FBI to fully investigate this matter.”
Read more here.
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GOOGLE IN HOT WATER: Sens. Amy KlobucharAmy KlobucharSenate Democrats push Biden over raising refugee cap Hillicon Valley: Acting FTC chair urges Congress to revive agency authority after Supreme Court ruling | Senate Intel panel working on breach notification bill Democrats press IRS to reverse Trump-era rule limiting donor disclosure MORE (D-Minn.) and Mike LeeMichael (Mike) Shumway LeeParler app risks charges of selling out with Apple return Hillicon Valley: Acting FTC chair urges Congress to revive agency authority after Supreme Court ruling | Senate Intel panel working on breach notification bill Senators question alleged Google contact with critic before testimony MORE (R-Utah) are questioning whether Google tried to influence one of its critics to change his testimony before a hearing last week on dominant app stores.
Jared Sine, chief legal officer at Match Group, testified during the hearing that a Google employee had called his company the night before and asked “why our testimony was different than what we’d said about the situation in our earnings call earlier this year.”
In a letter to Google’s senior director of government affairs and public policy, Wilson White, the top two senators on the panel that held the hearing said they “are deeply troubled by the possibility that Google may have attempted to influence another witness’s testimony.”
Read more.
MORE WAYS TO MONETIZE: Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot ZuckerbergApple revenue up 54 percent for start of 2021 Facebook beats revenue expectations with .2B in first quarter Immigration advocates push for pathway to citizenship with M campaign MORE announced on Tuesday that Instagram will soon launch new features for creators to generate revenue on the app.
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Zuckerberg told Adam Mosseri, head of the Facebook-owned social platform, in an Instagram live that monetization is an important step in the platform’s future.
“If this is going to be people’s job, they need to be able to make money doing it,” Zuckerberg said.
Creator shops are one of the way Zuckerberg sees creators making money on the platform.
Read more about the announcement.
STRONG START: Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported big earnings for the start of 2021 during a call Monday.
The Silicon Valley giant reported a total revenue of $55.3 billion, marking a 34 percent increase from the end of the first quarter of 2020.
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Alphabet also reported a net income of $17.9 billion, up from the $6.8 billion reported at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
In part, Alphabet’s big earnings were driven by YouTube and Google advertising.
Read more here.
TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME: Spotify announced Tuesday that it will launch a paid subscription service for podcasters, allowing hosts to monetize their shows and letting the company compete with Apple’s premium podcast library.
Variety reported that Spotify will allow creators to host their podcasts on the platform with subscription fees for two years without charging them anything to host the shows; beginning in 2023, the platform will take a 5 percent cut of all subscriber revenue.
Premium podcasts will be available through the platform through three payment tiers, according to Variety, at $2.99, $4.99 or $7.99 per month.
The announcement comes a week after Apple announced that it was launching its own “global marketplace” for premium, subscription-only podcasts.
Read more about the plan.
TOYOTA’S ACQUISITION: Toyota’s Woven Planet announced Tuesday that it has acquired Lyft’s self-driving division, Level 5, in a $550 million deal.
In a news release, the Toyota subsidiary said that the deal would “bring together world-class scientists and software engineers” from Woven Planet, Level 5 and Toyota’s own research division.
“The resulting combined ‘dream team’ of approximately 1,200 will represent one of the most diverse, well-resourced and talented groups in this field,” according to a statement by Woven Planet.
Read more here.
Lighter click: Rules are rules 🙂
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An op-ed to chew on: When it comes to ransomware, it’s time to think globally and act now
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Union leaders in Japan say Amazon is weaponizing “performance improvement plans” to weed them out (Rest of World / Kaoruko Ishibushi and Louise Matsakis)
‘Treated like sacrifices’: Families breathe toxic fumes from California’s warehouse hub (NBC News / Olivia Solon and April Glaser)
Are algorithms to blame for extremism? Yes. But so are we. (Protocol / Issie Lapowsky)Extremists Find a Financial Lifeline on Twitch (New York Times / Kellen Browning)