The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Friday it’s reviewing how to respond to the FTC’s denial of 35 of 37 Freedom of Information Act requests it filed seeking “detailed information" on “zombie voting” -- votes by then-Commissioner Rohit Chopra counted after he left the agency -- and other practices that the group believes show the agency “manipulated its rules and procedures while potentially ceding its independent agency status to political interference” (see 2111190039). The FTC argued the size and scope of the Chamber’s requests created “unreasonable hardship for the agency to process.” The FTC said the records the chamber sought in two requests are already public. “The agency’s denial of our” requests “in less than 48 hours calls into question whether the FTC ever actually reviewed each submission,” said group Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley. The Chamber filed three more FOIA requests Thursday seeking full disclosure of documents the FTC “has no reasonable defense to deny.” Senate Republicans are eyeing legislation to ban further FTC zombie votes and make the law retroactive to the beginning of 2021 to nullify Chopra’s post-resignation votes.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's office announced details of a virtual roundtable meeting Monday to discuss telehealth with healthcare providers. The first panel at 10 a.m. will discuss challenges and opportunities to improve telehealth services, the second the overall landscape of telehealth, funding and ancillary issues, said a news release Thursday. All four commissioners are participating.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has resigned, he tweeted Monday. Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal replaced him Monday as CEO, and Salesforce President Bret Taylor will chair the board, Dorsey said in an attached email to staff. Dorsey will stay on the board through his term ending in May, he said. Agrawal tweeted, “The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before.” Taylor also tweeted thanks. Twitter's stock closed 2.7% lower Monday at $45.78.

EU governments' negotiating position on new digital rules won favorable reviews from stakeholders, with some caveats. European Council ministers approved a "general approach" Thursday on the European Commission-proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see 2012150022). The DSA aims to protect users from illegal goods, services or content by, among other things, setting due diligence requirements for online intermediaries. The DMA seeks to create a level playing field in the digital sector by regulating "gatekeepers" that control core platform services to the detriment of competition. Changes include making the DSA explicitly applicable to online search engines and adding stricter rules for very large platforms, the Council said. Agreed amendments to the DMA include setting better criteria for designating gatekeepers and confirming the EC, not member countries, as sole enforcer of the regulation. The position is a "mixed bag" for consumers, said the European Consumer Organization: While the measures are good for consumers, they don't go far enough. The Consumer & Communications Industry Association welcomed the Council stance but said the DMA should be "better tailored to prevent the unintended consequences of a blunt, one-size-fits-all approach." The approach taken by the EC and Council recognizes the major changes in the digital ecosystem since the eCommerce Directive was adopted in 2000," said the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association and the GSM Association. However, they added, as the European Parliament continues its discussions of the proposals, it should more fairly allocate responsibility to different internet intermediaries according to their role in the digital value chain and their technical capabilities to act against illegal material in a targeted manner to avoid breaching fundamental rights. Parliamentary committees are still vetting the EC proposals. Talks between governments and lawmakers are scheduled next year.

After years of the IoT serving niche applications and specialized use cases, trends are converging to push it mainstream by creating new ways for products and services to interact with individuals, the cloud environment and potentially “thousands of applications,” said a Tuesday Technicolor report. Advances in processing power, automation and intelligence have evolved over the past decade at the same time costs have dropped for sensors that connect devices to hubs. “The biggest difference between where we are today and where we were five years ago is that IoT is increasingly seen as a mainstream technology that is accepted as an important part of the fabric that defines our digital lives,” said Girish Naganathan, chief technology officer, Technicolor Connected Home. IoT applications are emerging in building management, energy efficiency, industrial IoT and connected spaces, said Naganathan. Brownfield development in IoT-enabled durable goods like appliances and cars allows software created on top of legacy systems to coexist with products and software that have been in production for decades, he said. Combining IoT capabilities with legacy technologies allows a manufacturer to alert users that a system is about to fail and trigger a service call, he said. Greenfield development in IoT -- products created from the ground up for internet connectivity -- is “fundamentally changing user experiences,” he said, giving connected thermostats, smart locks and TVs as examples. IoT is playing a central role in transforming home gateways and set-top boxes that manage broadband traffic for in-home consumption, evolving from supporting proprietary single-function applications and devices to platforms that manage an array of complex services within the home, he noted. That trend is “unleashing new economic activity that is being enhanced by new innovative services in the cloud.” The IoT opens a new world of business models, technologies and services to create “integrated experiences that are intuitive and secure,” said Naganathan. It will be important for companies to forge and nurture long-term IoT relationships “that integrate complex technologies and go-to-market strategies” that are “frictionless experiences” for consumers and businesses, he said.

Zoom exited Q3 with 512,100 customer accounts with 10-plus employees each, up 18% year over year, said Chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg on an analysts’ call Monday. Customers with more than 10 employees generated 66% of Q3 revenue, up sequentially from 64% and 62% in Q3 last year, she said. These trends suggest that customers with more than 10 employees are expanding their use of the platform, adding more products and seats, she said. The company’s “net dollar expansion rate” for customers with more than 10 employees exceeded 130% for the 14th straight quarter, as existing customers “increased their spend with Zoom,” she said. “For Q4, we expect this metric to be modestly below the 130% mark.” Zoom’s online churn in Q3 “performed better than our expectations coming in at the beginning of the quarter,” said the CFO. “We were happy to see that it was more seasonality aligned rather than true potential departures, as people were making other choices or going back to meeting in person.” Q3 revenue of $1.05 billion was up 35% year over year. Quarter-on-quarter revenue growth is expected to be flat in Q4. "Our online business will be a headwind in the coming quarters as smaller customers and consumers adapt to the evolving environment," said Steckelberg. The stock closed down 15% Tuesday at $206.64.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency should assess the effectiveness of its programs related to communications sector security, GAO recommended Tuesday. CISA’s director should coordinate with sector stakeholders and deliver a revised sector-specific plan, the auditor said. The Department of Homeland Security concurred.

Comments are due Jan. 31 for a National Institute of Standards and Technology study on advancing a “more productive tech economy,” said a Federal Register notice Monday. NIST is seeking input about “public and private sector marketplace trends, supply chain risks, and the legislative, policy and future investment needs of eight emerging technology areas.” That includes AI, IoT, quantum computing, blockchain technology and unmanned delivery services. The study was directed by the American Competitiveness of a More Productive Emerging Tech Economy (Compete) Act (HR-8132).

Organizations need to “remain vigilant” against ransomware attacks and other cyberthreats, warned the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI Monday. Groups and enterprises need to deploy “multi-factor authentication” for remote access and administrative accounts, and should mandate “strong passwords and ensure they are not reused across multiple accounts,” said the agencies. “Remind employees not to click on suspicious links, and conduct exercises to raise awareness,” they said. “Review and, if needed, update incident response and communication plans that list actions an organization will take if impacted by a ransomware incident.” Though CISA isn't aware of a specific threat, “we know that threat actors don’t take holidays,” said Director Jen Easterly. Cybercriminals “have historically viewed holidays as attractive times to strike,” said FBI Cyber Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran. “We urge network defenders to prepare and remain alert over the upcoming holiday weekend.”

Energous got approval from a European notified body for its 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter for over-the-air charging at any distance, it said Friday, following recent FCC approval (see 2110190036). This opens opportunities in Europe for battery-less IoT devices and wearables, said Sanjay Gupta, AirFuel Alliance president.