European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager “appears” to want to fine Google for alleged antitrust activities, said a foreign diplomat Thursday, responding to media reports that the EU could be closing in on an antitrust action against the search giant. Accidentally leaked FTC documents, which showed FTC commissioners turning down an antitrust suit against Google as recommended by staff (see 1503260030), have made it “basically impossible” for the EU to arrive at a similar outcome, he said. “This commission wants to demonstrate that it can take tough and decisive action,” the diplomat said. “Then again, this is a very political decision.” “The recently disclosed FTC report suggests that the US and the EU [were] sharing information throughout this period,” said attorney Chris Castle, who represents artists and musicians and has worked with digital music services. “Google was afforded every opportunity to make a deal that made sense to not only the governments concerned but also the stakeholders,” he emailed. “That was a deal that was Google’s to lose and they did.” Google didn’t comment.

The British Court of Appeal ruled Friday against Google’s attempt to block British consumers from suing the search giant (see 1502270036). The British High Court in 2013 ruled in favor of three members of the Google Governance Campaign (GGC) on allegations that Google violated their privacy. “These claims raise serious issues which merit a trial,” the court said. “They concern what is alleged to have been the secret and blanket tracking and collation of information, often of an extremely private nature … about and associated with the claimants' internet use, and the subsequent use of that information for about nine months,” it said. “The decision opens the door to litigation by millions of Britons who used Apple computers, iPhones and iPads during the relevant period of Summer 2011 and Spring 2012,” said the Google Action Group in a release. The group was founded by the GGC, which seeks "better" corporate behavior from Google in the U.K. "We’re disappointed with the Court’s decision, and are considering our options,” said a Google spokeswoman. Apple didn’t comment.

The UN Human Rights Council Thursday adopted a resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age that “addresses the need for better procedural safeguards and effective domestic oversight, as well as remedies for government surveillance that infringes upon an individual’s privacy rights,” said a Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) news release. The resolution “clearly states that metadata can reveal deeply personal information and that extraterritorial surveillance is a threat to the right to privacy,” the CDT said. The resolution also establishes a dedicated special rapporteur on the right to privacy for a three-year period, who will be “tasked with monitoring, investigating, and reporting on the state of privacy in UN Member States around the world -- including where secret surveillance is concerned,” the CDT said. In a news release, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged all countries to support the new mandate by “providing all necessary information" requested by the special rapporteur and to "consider implementing the recommendations made in his or her reports.” The resolution allows the council to “establish a forum to provide a platform for identifying best practices, challenges and opportunities to secure respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” the UN news release said. Thirty-five nations, including the U.S., voted in favor of the resolution, 12 nations abstained. The UN Human Rights Council “strongly reaffirmed that privacy is a core part of human freedom,” said CDT Human Rights and Surveillance Legal Fellow Sarah St. Vincent. “A Special Rapporteur on privacy is a monumental step in ensuring that the world remains focused on reining in invasive government surveillance practices that have a chilling effect not only on our right to privacy, but also on our right to free expression.”

Supply chain services supplier Ingram Micro continued its acquisitions binge, saying Wednesday it completed the buy of the Peruvian and Chilean businesses of Tech Data, the Florida-based wholesale distributor of technology products. Terms weren’t disclosed. Ingram said acquiring those businesses from Tech Data would add more than $270 million annually to its revenue line and that the acquisition “complements” its existing holdings in Peru and Chile. The deal also “immediately delivers increased reach and scale in the region, which has consistently been a top performer for the company,” Ingram said. Earlier this month, Ingram announced the introduction of Anovo, a Europe-based provider of repair services for smartphones and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America (see 1503030020).

Companies transferring consumer data from the European Union to the U.S. can ensure the transfer complies with European privacy law by participating in the voluntary U.S.-EU safe harbor program, FTC Consumer Education Specialist Alvaro Puig wrote in a blog post Monday. To participate in the safe harbor program, a company must abide by seven principles: notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access and enforcement, Puig said. If an organization says it complies with the safe harbor program, it must live up to that promise or risk being sued by the FTC, he said.

To enhance information sharing and enforcement cooperation on privacy-related matters, the FTC said Monday it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA). The FTC said its Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Dutch DPA Chairman Jacob Kohnstamm signed the MOU after the commission voted unanimously in favor of the agreement, which is similar to agreements the FTC currently has with data protection authorities in Ireland and the U.K. “In our interconnected world, cross-border cooperation is increasingly important,” Ramirez said in a news release. “This arrangement with our Dutch counterpart will strengthen FTC efforts to protect the privacy of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic,” she said. “Signing of this MOU between the Dutch DPA and the FTC is a great step,” Kohnstamm said, and “marks the good relationship between our offices.”

More than 2 billion people in developing and emerging countries are priced out of accessing the Internet, said a report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that was released at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The report spans 51 developing and emerging nations and found that a fixed broadband connection costs the average citizen in these countries about 40 percent of their monthly income. Mobile broadband is cheaper but still double the UN threshold, averaging 10 percent of monthly income or about as much as developing country households spend on housing, the report said. It maps the links between policy and lower prices, and finds that five key areas are needed to create a roadmap to affordable Internet, including the existence of an effective National Broadband Plan, an environment that promotes enhanced competition, strategies that permit efficient spectrum allocation, models designed to encourage or mandate infrastructure sharing, and widespread public access through libraries, schools, and other community venues. Some of the organizations and countries that are members of the A4AI are Ghana, Google, GSMA, Intel, Microsoft, Mozambique, Nigeria, USAID and the U.S. State Department.

Supply chain services supplier Ingram Micro acquired Anovo, a Europe-based provider of repair services for smartphones and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America, Ingram said Monday. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Ingram said it expects Anovo to contribute more than $300 million in annual service revenue.

The number of apps downloaded to smartphones and tablets is expected to grow roughly 28 percent this year to over 235 billion, said a Juniper Research report. Fueling the projected rise is “phenomenal growth” in downloads in the Chinese market, which last year accounted for six in 10 downloads worldwide, said Juniper. Local digital storefronts have benefited from Google’s near exclusion from the China market, said Juniper, and search engine company Baidu has been the primary beneficiary. Baidu’s app store, which is effectively integrated into the search engine, has passed iTunes to become the second-largest app store globally in download volume, said Juniper. While five of the top seven app stores in download volume are China-based, China still lags the U.S. and Japan in app revenue, it said. Revenue per download is nine times higher in the U.S. and 14 times higher in Japan, said the researcher. Games are the most mature and lucrative app sector and offer “significant scope for growth” in both developed and developing markets, said Juniper, citing a migration from handheld game consoles to mobile devices and “continued social gaming growth.” Adoption and monetization of multimedia apps is likely to be fueled further by network operators bundling multimedia applications with customer subscriptions, it said. “Broadcasters are now offering distinct and bolt-on mobile packages, a trend which will gain further impetus as customers migrate to larger screen phablet devices,” said analyst Windsor Holden.

U.K. spy agency GCHQ was able to hack into the internal networks of Gemalto, “the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications” on carriers including “AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world,” The Intercept reported Thursday. “In other words, for millions or even billions of users around the world, global cellular communications are about as secure from GCHQ and NSA as an FM radio broadcast,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Nadia Kayyali in a blog post Thursday. Normally calls, texts and other communications made on a mobile phone are encrypted as they travel from a mobile device to a carrier’s tower, Kayyali wrote. Only those who had the encryption key, known as "Ki," would be able to decrypt that communication. GCHQ and the NSA “obtained the master keys -- literally and figuratively -- to unlock millions, if not billions, of the world’s mobile devices” while leaving no trace on the network or on an individual users’ device, Kayyali said. “This is an unprecedented mass attack on the privacy of citizens worldwide,” said Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim in a statement Friday. “There is certainly value in targeted surveillance of cell phone communications,” Nojeim said, but “this coordinated subversion of the trusted technical security infrastructure of cell phones means the U.S. and British governments now have easy access to our mobile communications.” Standards "for intelligence surveillance are weak worldwide,” Nojeim said, urging a global response “to the threats of government surveillance” and that government surveillance standards be substantially raised. Due to a ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal Feb. 6, which said intelligence sharing between GCHQ and the NSA was unlawful before December 2014, Americans may file a request at the Privacy International website to learn if the NSA provided GCHQ with information about them. Risk of a privacy violation after filing a request is relatively low, Kayyali wrote in another blog post on Friday. “The payoff is that the more people who sign on and learn that they’ve been affected by GCHQ and NSA spying, the clearer it becomes that reform to surveillance is urgently needed.” "It is longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters," said a GCHQ spokesperson. "All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position. In addition, the UK's interception regime is entirely compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights." A spokeswoman for Sprint said the company had no comment. AT&T, NSA, T-Mobile and Verizon didn't comment by our deadline.