Amid concerns about security vulnerabilities for children's products, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who co-founded the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus last year, is asking acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen for information about whether legislation protecting children's data needs to be updated and if the commission needs additional authority to regulate industry's handling of kids' online data. In a Monday letter to Ohlhausen, Warner said he's worried children's protections aren't keeping pace with consumer and tech trends, particularly security vulnerabilities with devices and the transmission and storage of data collected by the devices. "Reports of your statements casting these risks as merely speculative -- and dismissing consumer harms that don’t pose 'monetary injury or unwarranted health and safety risks' -- only deepen my concerns," he wrote. Warner cited the alleged data breach reported by several media outlets in February of Spiral Toys' CloudPets products, which uses an app to record and send messages to the toy, and a complaint filed with the FTC against the "My Friend Cayla" doll that can be hacked (see 1703220045 and 1612190051). Warner wants answers to questions about whether industry is complying with Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act standards, if the commission can require companies to recall defective products, the latest FTC guidance or action on the CloudPets and Cayla products, and why Ohlhausen believes IoT device insecurities have yet to materialize or why the private sector is better equipped to address such problems. An FTC spokeswoman acknowledged receipt of Warner's letter but didn't comment beyond that.

AT&T said it completed deployment nationwide of an improved IoT network, called LTE-M for LTE Cat M. “The LTE-M network is now live across the U.S. on our nationwide 4G LTE network, following software upgrades,” said a Thursday blog post. “Our LTE-M deployment marks another step forward on our path to 5G and massive IoT.” AT&T said it plans to deploy LTE-M across Mexico by the end of the year. It offered a new suite of rate plans with LTE-M, starting at $1.50 per month per device. LTE-M offers longer battery life, up to 10 years, and improved coverage underground and inside buildings, compared with the technology it’s replacing, the carrier said. The modules are also comparatively small.

GAO found “potential challenges” for IoT, including information security, privacy, safety, standards and economic issues, said a 78-page report released Monday. It cited a review of 10 federal agencies -- including the FCC and FTC -- and 12 experts. “FCC staff said that relatively few interference complaints arise from devices that are operating properly and are compliant with regulations,” GAO said. “They also said that most current devices are generally shielded and polite.” The report considers IoT in a global context, and considers challenges of interoperability and standards. “Unexpected sources of interference may pose a challenge to IoT devices,” such as microwaves leaking “waves that can interfere with Wi-Fi access points,” said GAO. “For certain large-scale IoT deployments -- such as in smart cities, connected cars, or applications where large amounts of video data are being transferred -- spectrum needs can be a major issue.” GAO made no recommendations.

Honeywell recalled Swift wireless gateways sold with fire alarm systems, said a Consumer Product Safety Commission notice Friday. Smoke detectors connected to the gateway can fail to activate properly when significant environmental contaminants are present, posing a risk that consumers won’t be alerted to a fire, said CPSC. The 900 gateways affected by the recall were sold between October 2014 and December for about $440 under the Notifier, Fire-Lite, Gamewell-FCI, Honeywell and Johnson Controls brands. No injuries have been reported. Customers should contact Honeywell for a firmware upgrade, CPSC said.

A low-power IoT network doesn't seem desirable or lucrative for Dish Network (see 1705010041), and while the company could meet its FCC buildout requirements with a $4 billion "minimalist Potemkin network," any network build would denote the company either not finding a good spectrum buyer or CEO Charlie Ergen not wanting to sell, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors Tuesday. Either signal "would be catastrophic for Dish shareholders," it said. If the company goes the building route, it said, "one can, and probably should, think of the ... initial spending as the minimal required option payment required to buy Dish more time ... to sell." The analyst said the work Dish did to get all of its AWS-4 redesignated as downlink could end up saving the company billions of dollars since it would need far fewer cell sits to cover the same area compared with before the spectrum reclassification.

There's “great promise” for blockchain to “alter and transform established industries beyond” financial technologies, ABI Research reported Monday. Blockchain-based applications “can be used for numerous applications, including: digital identities, governance, asset tracking, and [machine-to-machine] transactions, among many others,” said analyst Michela Menting in a news release. “Blockchain can affect and perhaps radically transform all kinds of interactions.” With more than 1,500 blockchain startups, the technology generated more than $500 million in venture capital funding globally in 2016, ABI said. Vendors will need to address economics, legal and privacy issues for the technology, the firm said. “While the cryptocurrency market may be maturing, IoT applications are still largely untested,” Menting said in the news release.

Access Now, which lodged an FTC complaint last week against sex toy maker Svakom Design USA for an internet-enabled vibrator equipped with a camera that could be hacked, said in a Thursday news release the company "seriously though incompletely" responded. A spokesman for the company said in previous emails to us it stopped selling the Siime Eye device and took several actions to improve the device's security -- responses that were similar to what it sent to Access Now (see 1704260007 and 1704270005). Svakom told the group it's launching a new app and considering a full recall of the product, but Access Now said the company didn't "provide enough information about the steps they claim to be taking to evaluate their full impact on user security." It said "companies that deal directly with the most private moments of our lives should take these issues exceptionally seriously." Access Now U.S. Policy Manager Amie Stepanovich said in the release her group is glad the complaint spurred Svakom to take additional actions and hopes "other companies will think twice before bringing insecure products to market."

Universal Electronics agreed to buy certain assets of Residential Control Systems, Rancho Cordova, California, for $9 million in cash, said the company in a Thursday announcement. RCS’ acquired assets include product lines, inventory, intellectual property, engineering and development resources, sales and distribution relationships, and other assets used in its communication and smart thermostat business. RCS will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary under terms of the agreement. The acquisition expands UEI’s footprint in the IoT space via RCS’ programmable communicating thermostats, advanced HVAC controls, energy monitoring and control devices, gateways, in-home displays and user interfaces, the company said. RCS customers include HVAC manufacturers and security and home automation firms ADT and Nexia Home Automation Systems. The smart thermostat market is projected to double from $1.1 billion last year to $2.2 billion in 2020, said UEI.

Taiwan-based Billion Electric is providing a dual-SIM router for smart buses in the Philippines, it said in a Monday announcement. The in-vehicle Wi-Fi routers enable vehicle tracking, status monitoring and emergency detection, said the company. A pay-for-use Wi-Fi portal allows passengers to use cellular services along with advertisement push options, it said.

Increasing levels of RF noise will create a “world of pain” for radio communications services, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers said in a meeting with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-191. “If the noise situation is not addressed the highly-anticipated IoT may fall well short of expectation,” AFCCE said. Lack of adequate rule enforcement is leading to “both increased unlicensed operations and increasingly non-compliant operations, both of which frustrate rule-abiding operators and challenge the ability to share spectrum,” the group said. It said the FCC should expedite the creation of online interference complaint portals and “re-establish programs of random inspections and post-marketing sampling and measurements to assess and monitor the state of compliance.”