With the recent revelation that Yahoo complied with a government order to scan all incoming email traffic (see 1610050038), Access Now is urging Verizon, which is in the process of acquiring Yahoo, to show strong support for the privacy rights of global users. "As you engage in due diligence around the acquisition, we urge you to probe the privacy and security risks and safeguards needed to protect Yahoo! and Verizon users," wrote Access Now's policy experts Drew Mitnick, Peter Micek and Amie Stepanovich in a Wednesday letter to Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman. The letter complimented Verizon and Yahoo for past actions both companies have taken in protecting the privacy rights of users and curbing government surveillance. But the letter said Yahoo's adherence to a government order calls into question its commitment to users and urged Verizon to investigate that "complicity." Access Now recommended: Verizon and Yahoo consult with privacy, security and human rights individuals when receiving such government orders; ensure that both companies issue regular transparency reports about such requests; provide strong encryption and data security protections (see 1609280050); publish a human rights impact assessment for the Yahoo acquisition; and forge better partnerships with private sector and civil society groups on protecting user rights. Verizon said in a statement it has "an on-going and constructive engagement with Access Now and will review their recommendations and consider them carefully."

U.S. consumers are “excited” about autonomous cars and the benefits they could provide, and most want to “swap their current cars for completely self-driving vehicles,” a CTA study found. CTA canvassed online in July 2,001 adults who drove a car or truck in the past month and found 70 percent have a “strong interest” in testing a driverless car, it said in a Friday report. CTA also found 62 percent of those polled are interested in replacing their current cars or trucks with completely self-driving vehicles, it said. Other findings: (1) More than eight in 10 consumers (82 percent) agreed with the proposition that autonomous cars can “reduce accidents caused by aggressive driving or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol”; (2) Slightly fewer think driverless cars will bring “monetary savings” on car insurance (80 percent), will prevent up to 90 percent of driving-related accidents and injuries on U.S. roads (79 percent) or offer “new mobility options” for people with disabilities (78 percent). “We don’t have to wait for the benefits of self-driving cars to arrive,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a statement. “Driver-assist technology is already saving lives, avoiding accidents and paving the way for completely driverless innovations still to come. We should promote these technologies that help drowsy or inattentive drivers stay focused, or provide specific responses such as automatic braking and lane-drift avoidance -- all of which are now widely available in newer model vehicles.”

Plaintiffs suing a variety of broadband providers alleging "bait and switch" advertising will have to respond to each motion to dismiss from those providers separately, said U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington of Tampa in an order Wednesday. In a motion (in Pacer) Tuesday, plaintiff TruthinAdvertisingEnforcers.com said the six motions for dismissal and one answer that asks for dismissal received in response to its lawsuit raise similar issues and asked for permission to file an opposition memorandum covering common issues or one opposition paper opposing all seven defendants' motions, saying either route "will be clearer and more efficient for all parties and the Court." The defendants, in their motions filed earlier this week (for example here) said TruthinAdvertisingEnforcers.com's allegations lack supporting facts and are largely non-specific conclusory allegations. Being sued are Dish Network, Frontier Communications, Charter Communications, Hughes Network and EarthLink and sales agents Infinity Sales Group and GoDish.com.

AT&T gave the FCC a Q2 update on its wire-center technology transition trials in Carbon Hill, Alabama, and West Delray Beach, Florida. "For the first time since the inception of the trials, more than 50% of the combined targeted consumer accounts have migrated to either IP or wireless voice service," said a company filing Wednesday in docket 13-5. "Consumers using IP and wireless services experience comparable network performance and service quality as those using legacy (TDM) services." AT&T said it continues to do community outreach in both localities.

Union Square Ventures endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Tuesday, the first time the firm has made an endorsement. “As investors in technology companies, we believe that technology and innovation create broad opportunity and improve lives,” the firm said in a blog post. “The benefits of technology and globalization have not been evenly distributed.” Clinton is the “clear choice,” Union Square Ventures said. Its current investments include CloudFlare and Twilio. Managing Partner Brad Burnham signed onto an earlier letter blasting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (see 1607140086).

The Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates “undermine tech” with their recent criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a blog post for The Hill Tuesday. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, the GOP vice presidential nominee, were scheduled to debate Tuesday night. Congressional “passage of TPP has the potential to provide significant benefits to the tech sector and the entire U.S. economy,” Shapiro said. “U.S. technology companies alone exported $10 billion in goods and services to TPP markets in 2014. The TPP will open or expand access to these key markets for the products, services and applications made by the companies CTA represents, and facilitate market access for the wide array of industries that rely on these technologies to conduct their own business.” Kaine and Pence “must return to their more welcoming attitude to free trade -- and correct the opinions of the presidential candidates they serve -- if the U.S. is to survive and thrive in this global economy,” Shapiro said. Both presidential nominees have criticized the TPP and congressional leaders said no consideration is likely during the lame duck session, despite the Obama administration lobbying for such a vote.

Level 3 is investigating the "root cause" of a voice network outage Tuesday that affected some customers in North America, a spokeswoman said. The company restored all services by 11:31 a.m. EST, she said. The outage affected T-Mobile customers, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted.

The White House touted “$7.7 million in new grants to bring broadband to 6 unserved communities,” outlined in a fact sheet Tuesday pegged to a White House Rural Forum meeting scheduled for Wednesday. “USDA’s Community Connect program provides funding for broadband deployment into unserved areas,” the administration said. “Since 2009, USDA Rural Development broadband programs have helped bring high-speed Internet access to nearly 6 million rural residents and businesses.” President Barack Obama also wrote an opinion piece on the topic, which the Department of Agriculture posted. “Over the last eight years, my Administration has worked hand-in-hand with rural communities to build more opportunity,” Obama said, which included efforts in “deploying high speed internet and wireless.” The White House Rural Council released a memo titled “Rural Strategies that Work,” which said “geographic isolation” is a key challenge for many rural communities: “Remote rural towns often do not have access to vital resources, such as high speed broadband or educational institutions.” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote a Medium blog post highlighting a focus on telehealth. The Rural Council includes Vilsack, who is its chairman.

NTIA extended the deadline for comment on factors influencing industry adoption of IPv6 to Oct. 17, from Oct. 3 (see 1608180029). It was “in response to requests for additional time,” said an agency notice in the Federal Register. The Department of Commerce intends to use the comments to “inform” its work to promote IPv6, including a planned IPv6 best practices forum set to be held during the Internet Governance Forum's December meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico. Stakeholders see NTIA’s request for comment on IPv6 as particularly opportune given U.S. entities’ progress over the past year in adopting the protocol and amid the inflection point in the transition to new technologies like 5G and the IoT (see 1608310069).

The FCC net neutrality order ban on paid prioritization is overly restrictive, preventing arrangements that could benefit consumers, said a TechFreedom paper by Policy Counsel Tom Struble. "No exceptions are made for paid prioritization, and other forms of differential traffic management -- e.g., unpaid or user-directed prioritization -- are subject to strict scrutiny from the FCC," said a news release Friday on the paper. “The FCC’s blanket ban on paid prioritization created a major obstacle to innovation, and the agency failed to provide any real proof of harm as justification,” said Struble. “It’s not too late for the Commission to fix this. Adopting the transparency requirement proposed by the Broadband Internet and Technical Advisory Group would help ensure that consumers are receiving the service they pay for while providing the FCC with the information it needs to address concerns on a case-by-case basis. This approach would protect consumers without needlessly hamstringing ISPs that wish to experiment with new approaches to network management.” Struble was to discuss the paper Saturday at a conference where Commissioner Mike O'Rielly on Friday bemoaned the lack of FCC cost-benefit analyses (see 1609300069).