TikTok should end plans to “force personalized ads” on users, Access Now said in a statement Tuesday. Access Now wrote a July 5 letter to TikTok asking the company to cancel plans to target users over 18 with personalized ads in the European Economic Area, U.K. and Switzerland. Access Now cited a report that TikTok is pausing those plans in favor of working with regulators. Access Now Global Data Protection Lead Estelle Masse said the company “must end” the practice for good: “When we rang the alarm bells, data protection authorities from Italy, Ireland, and Spain listened. With their swift action to protect people’s rights, they shut down a problematic practice and potential harmful precedent before TikTok could implement it.” TikTok didn't comment.
TikTok should end plans to “force personalized ads” on users, Access Now said in a statement Tuesday. Access Now wrote a July 5 letter to TikTok asking the company to cancel plans to target users over 18 with personalized ads in the European Economic Area, U.K. and Switzerland. Access Now cited a report that TikTok is pausing those plans in favor of working with regulators. Access Now Global Data Protection Lead Estelle Masse said the company “must end” the practice for good: “When we rang the alarm bells, data protection authorities from Italy, Ireland, and Spain listened. With their swift action to protect people’s rights, they shut down a problematic practice and potential harmful precedent before TikTok could implement it.” TikTok didn't comment.
T-Mobile asked the FCC to pause new high-cost USF programs until programs funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have been implemented, in a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff (see 2203180062). The carrier also met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-476. The new funding "largely overlaps" with the goals of the high-cost programs and is "equivalent to more than two decades' worth of support, T-Mobile said. There's also "no need for immediate contributions reform" if new support is paused, T-Mobile said, noting "recurring appropriations" for programs like the affordable connectivity program would "more efficiently distribute the burdens of the USF to different stakeholders and appropriately account for the shared benefits to society of expanded connectivity." Absent direct appropriations, the carrier said it backed assessing "network capacity usage" or "revenues generated over USF-funded networks."
The FCC Wireline Bureau extended until Dec.1, 2023, its waiver pausing the phasedown of Lifeline voice-only support and increase in minimum service standards, in an order posted Friday in docket 11-42 (see 2111050058). The bureau cited a "continued preference for voice-only services and the enduring nature" of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin has granted a 20-day extension to low-power broadcaster Marion Educational Exchange to hire an attorney after the broadcaster failed to respond to multiple communications from the FCC, said an order in MEE’s license hearing proceeding Friday. "The Presiding Judge would be justified in dismissing this proceeding due to MEE’s failure to prosecute its application,” the order said. “Given the seriousness of that result, however, the Presiding Judge is willing to provide MEE more time to engage new counsel.” MEE had argued that it hadn’t received communications related to the case from the Media Bureau and its first attorney -- who has since withdrawn -- but Halprin expressed skepticism about those claims. “Perhaps Mr. Craft did not read the emails, but the Presiding Judge does not find it credible that he did not receive them,” the letter said, referring to Shawn Craft, MEE's board president. MEE has said it can’t afford a lawyer, but Halprin said MEE’s conduct has given her pause about allowing the proceeding to continue without the broadcaster having representation. “It is not clear that MEE has explored whether an attorney might take the case pro bono considering the company’s nonprofit status.”
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Even if the Commerce Department finds that solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duty actions against Chinese exports, no AD/CVD will be collected for the next two years, the Biden administration announced on June 6. Trade lawyers were astonished by the action, which is based on the authority to temporarily suspend AD/CVD when imports are needed to respond to natural disasters "or other emergencies."
Even if the Commerce Department finds that solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duty actions against Chinese exports, no AD/CVD will be collected for the next two years, the Biden administration announced on June 6. Trade lawyers were astonished by the action, which is based on the authority to temporarily suspend AD/CVD when imports are needed to respond to natural disasters "or other emergencies."
HP, like most PC vendors, expects it will continue to have strong commercial PC demand for the rest of calendar 2022, with “some softening of the consumer businesses,” said CEO Enrique Lores on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q2 ended April 30. Revenue in HP’s Personal Systems segment grew 9% to $11.5 billion -- “our highest Q2 revenue ever, reflecting the durability of PC demand,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security should permanently shutter its disinformation board, Republicans told us last week after the director resigned (see 2205180051). Democrats also had critical comments about the board’s rollout, following free speech objections from Republicans (see 2205050048).