Megan Gray

per politico

John Ehrett has left the Federal Trade Commission, where he served as Mark Meador’s chief of staff, to join Lex Politica, a boutique conservative law firm.

Microsoft and Google agree to end all regulatory complaints against each other The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts.

(and effectively killed off the FairSearch advocacy group, just like the Sweeney deal will imperil Coalition for App Fairness).

www.theverge.com/news/889595...

www.theverge.com/2016/4/22/1...

Disappointed in the @TimSweeneyEpic muzzle for sure -- and it is a muzzle. But this is part of the Google playbook. The Google-Apple search default deal has a requirement for Apple to proselytize about Google (I've heard); the 2016 detente between Microsoft-Google had muzzle...

rude!

Judge issues the preliminary injunction in Amazon v. Perplexity -- which had oral argument last week, where the judge did not permit remote access -- and for which the transcript cannot be readily obtained. Yet the judge's decision (a mere 8 pages) refuses to explain:

Anthropic v DoW DC Appeals

The 2 lawsuits filed today by Anthropic against the federal government -- posted here, thank you @NPR

www.documentcloud.org/documents/2...

Amazon gonna get preliminary injunction against Perplexity:

What We Do | Fight Corruption Today — Join Us — Public Integrity Project Learn about the Public Integrity Project's strategy for raising the cost of corruption in America, and the cases we're using to pursue rich criminals and corrupt government officials.

New lawsuit against Trump admin for failing to enforce TikTok ban, thus hurting Google and Meta investors. Will be curious to see how court reacts to this jurisdictional claim.

www.publicintegrityproject.com/what-we-do

I miss Jim Tyre

Anthropic’s AI Hacked the Firefox Browser. It Found a Lot of Bugs.
New AI-powered tools are increasingly adept at spotting flaws. Hacking experts worry they will be good at exploiting them, too.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sen...

CDT Testimony before Pennsylvania Joint Hearing on Dynamic Pricing  George Slover, competition policy counsel for CDT, testified at a joint hearing before the Pennsylvania Assembly’s House Majority Policy Committee and the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, on the issue of dynamic pricing.  His testimony focused primarily on one species of dynamic pricing, the more personally intrusive and abusive kind — secretly using a consumer’s personal data profile to size them up for their susceptibility to paying […]

CDT’s George Slover testified before a joint hearing of the PA Assembly’s House Majority Policy Committee & Senate Democratic Policy Committee on dynamic pricing. He spoke about “bespoke pricing” — using consumers’ personal data profiles to secretly charge them more.

dirty trick! the day AFTER the court hearing on Newsguard's preliminary injunction re the FTC's subpoena, the FTC issues a 16-page, single-space decision denying the earlier-filed motion to quash -- essentially a lengthy sur-reply that the judge told the FTC she wouldn't allow.

Preliminary injunction hearing in Amazon v. Perplexity is happening now, but -- although this judge usually provides remote zoom access -- I haven't been able to access. If you have -- or if you are there in person, please reach out.

Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who declined to identify former clients.

Shiver me timbers

Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate
ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees…

www.propublica.org/article/tru...

Federal judge to hear arguments about Pentagon’s restrictions on press access Defense Department policy instituted last year prohibits gathering or publishing any information that isn’t authorized by the government.

Oral argument in court TODAY re the Defense Department’s new restrictions on press access.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...

It’s not merely corruption, it’s brorruption

yay! my plea to the court has been rewarded -- we now have remote access to Newsguard v. FTC today --

MTC oral arg 2pmET
Phone Number: 833-990-9400 (Meeting ID: 117076001)

if you are attending the Motion to Dismiss oral argument TODAY in Newsguard v. FTC in DC, please lmk -- it seems the judge is not permitting a public access line

Ban on $3 charge for paper statement but not ban on signup incentive that removes $3 charge for paper statement.

Ban on $3 fee for irregular customer but not ban on reward program that removes $3 fee

Trouble ahead for bans on algorithmic pricing aka personalized pricing

clpblog.citizen.org/ny-court-fi...

New Research: Search Happens Everywhere; an Analysis of 41 Websites with Significant Search Activity - SparkToro For 25 years, web search meant Google (and a little bit of Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo). But in the past 2.5 years, it's often expanded to include the

Fascinating new data on search in AI era

sparktoro.com/blog/new-re...

LiveNation opening statements still haven’t started. Parties had a ton of evidentiary disputes overnight that judge had to review and rule on (and he was justifiably ticked). Kickoff in 15 min.

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar tools.

How CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements

www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-...

The tv remote control was the first infinite scroll

Hit-and-run car crash in DC that hurt Rep. Baird and killed his wife (who died today) - but zero info on specific location - why the secrecy?

the economic experts (jurors with advanced education). Who does LiveNation try to pick off to prevent unanimous verdict? Will it be the French bank compliance woman who reads murder mysteries? Or the Jamaican USPS woman who reads the Bible? We”ll know in 6 weeks.

And we are off to the races in LiveNation trial!
12 jurors, no alternates (if one person drops out, not replaced). Must be unanimous verdict for liability (if liable, judge decides remedy). Only 2 men. Of the 10 women, 6 are white. Jury has 4 people who might understand the…

This is only the trial court 😎😃😉

Yeah sure let’s launch a war in the Middle East while the Department of Homeland Security is shut down, why not what could go wrong