The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that an administrative subpoena can be used to obtain Internet service subscriber data. The case, on appeal from the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, hinged on the constitutional rights of Guy Wheelock, who was convicted of receiving child pornography. Wheelock challenged the use of the administrative subpoena -- rather than a warrant -- to obtain his Internet subscriber information, and his 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. The 8th Circuit upheld the constitutionality of that sentence. “With Comcast in possession of his subscriber data, Wheelock cannot claim a reasonable ‘expectation of privacy in [the] government’s acquisition of his subscriber information, including his IP address and name from third-party service providers,’” the 10-page decision said. “Because Wheelock had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information, a warrant was not necessary,” it said.

The FCC said it’s seeking comment on a petition from Marriott, the American Hospitality & Lodging Association and Ryman Hospitality Properties seeking FCC guidance on what they should do to protect the security and quality of their Wi-Fi networks. Marriott agreed last month to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether the hotel company intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at a Tennessee convention center (see 1410060039). The comment deadline is Dec. 19, the FCC said.

The FTC seeks comment on its proposed settlement with patent assertion entity (PAE) MPHJ Technology Investments. The settlement, announced last week, would prohibit MPHJ and the Farney Daniels law firm from sending out deceptive prelitigation demand letters to entities the PAE claims have violated its patents. The FTC had been investigating MPHJ’s sending of more than 9,000 demand letters over its patent portfolio, which includes multiple patents on scanning documents for attachment to emails (see 1411060044). The FTC will accept comments on the proposed settlement through Dec. 8, the commission said Thursday in the Federal Register.

Ninety-four percent of U.S. consumers heard about major data breaches during the past year, but only 45 percent of surveyed consumers have changed an online password, ISACA said Wednesday, based on a survey. About 28 percent of consumers said they were shopping less frequently at one or more retailers that had experienced major data breaches over the past year, while 15 percent of consumers said they made fewer online purchases using mobile devices, ISACA said. “An interesting conclusion from this study is the gap between people’s concerns about protecting their data privacy and security versus the actions they take,” said ISACA International President Robert Stroud in a news release. “Businesses need to address this gap by aggressively educating customers and employees about how they can help reduce the risk or minimize the impact of data breaches or hacks.” ISACA surveyed 1,646 ISACA members, along with an additional 4,224 consumers in Australia, India, U.K. and U.S.

Compared with last year, IBM’s annual holiday sales forecast report (see 1411050036) predicts significantly higher mobile browsing activity as a share of total online traffic. IBM believes that’s because of "a combination of an increased number of people using tablet devices, companies offering ubiquitous and affordable smartphones (a move away from feature phones) and consumer comfort and familiarity with mobile shopping," spokeswoman Amanda Carl emailed us Thursday. As for IBM projections that iOS devices will dominate Android smartphones and tablets in mobile browsing and shopping, we asked if IBM has any read on the possible impact of Apple Pay on holiday sales in this, its first holiday selling season. "Retailers are looking to bring the latest in online shopping to the store," Carl replied. "This includes in-store targeting via mobile applications, personalization in terms of mobile coupons, and mobile push notifications. This in-store digital push is now including mobile payments, especially with the recent launch of Apple Pay, which may in fact be the catalyst for broad adoption of mobile payments, both through Apple and other devices."

The FTC deserves praise for reaching a settlement with patent assertion entity (PAE) MPHJ Technology Investments, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Friday. But the settlement also highlights the need for legislation to give the commission “clear authority” to take action against PAEs, she said. The FTC’s settlement with MPHJ, announced Thursday (see 1411060044), bars the PAE from sending out deceptive pre-litigation demand letters to entities it claims have violated its patents. Application Developers Alliance President Jon Potter separately criticized the FTC’s settlement with MPHJ, saying in a statement it “doesn’t even qualify as a slap on the wrist.” The settlement is “further evidence that comprehensive patent legislation -- including demand letter provisions with teeth -- is necessary,” Potter said. McCaskill said in a news release that her Transparency in Assertion of Patents Act (S-2049) would give the FTC more authority to take action against deceptive demand letters by requiring specific information disclosures in the letters. McCaskill chairs the Senate panel on Consumer Protection. Some of the ideas included in S-2049 made it into compromise language for the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720), but the Senate Commerce Committee has not moved to consider S-2049 on its own due to concerns about the bill’s provisions.

Lionsgate plans by the end of 2014 to launch its Lionsgate Entertainment World streaming service in China with Alibaba, CEO Jon Feltheimer said Friday on an earnings call. Lionsgate also is in talks with "several other prospective partners for additional online branded platforms," Feltheimer said. "These initiatives all capitalize on our ability to innovate in the digital space as well as to reach niche audiences with branded quality content and targeted marketing." Lionsgate has "a lot of content available in China," including "premium series" like Mad Men and movies like Divergent, Feltheimer said in Q&A. "But I want to be clear that it's not only going to be our content" that will reside on the streaming service being launched with Alibaba, he said. "We're going to be curating other content for that platform." Lionsgate also has started shooting movie content with 360-degree cameras to "take advantage" of Oculus Rift and other virtual-reality 3D headset technologies, he said. "We're actually pretty excited about it." Lionsgate views it as "the kind of enhancement that will make our home entertainment product significantly more valuable," he said.

Not quite six of 10 U.S. homes have Wi-Fi, and that puts the country in 11th place among major industrialized countries in terms of household Wi-Fi penetration, Strategy Analytics said in a report Wednesday. The firm puts the blame for the low U.S. ranking on slower adoption of Wi-Fi routers, though the U.S., in terms of number of Wi-Fi homes, ranks second only to China (72 million vs. 108 million), it said. The Netherlands is the top market for Wi-Fi penetration at 80.4 percent, followed by South Korea (76.4 percent), Norway (76.2 percent) and the U.K. (72.1 percent), it said. High fixed-line broadband penetration in those countries is the reason they lead, it said. "Contrary to common perception, not all consumers have embraced Wi-Fi networks in their homes despite the fact that global connected devices per household stand at 5.5 in 2014," the company said. "Wi-Fi router adoption in fixed-line broadband households still has much room to grow globally. As Wi-Fi technologies continue to advance, prices fall, and the technology becomes more familiar to the average consumer, nearly 80 percent of fixed-line broadband households will have established Wi-Fi networks by 2018."

IBM projects that online holiday sales will increase 15 percent over the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, compared with last year, the company said Wednesday in its annual holiday forecast report. The biggest increase in online sales is expected on Cyber Monday, when sales will grow 15.8 percent, followed closely by Thanksgiving with a projected increase of 15.6 percent, it said. It sees Black Friday online sales growing 13 percent "as consumers find the best deals with their fingers as well as their feet," it said. IBM based its predictions "on historical and real-time trend data analyzed across hundreds of U.S. retail websites," it said. Now in its seventh year of holiday reporting, IBM tracks more than 370 performance indicators, and "helps retailers and marketers benchmark themselves against industry peers while driving more targeted customer engagements," it said. Other IBM projections: (1) For the first time ever, more than half of all online shopping on Thanksgiving, roughly 53 percent, will come from a mobile device, up by 23 percentage points year-over-year. (2) Smartphones will continue to lead in mobile browsing over the five-day shopping period, accounting for 29 percent of all online traffic vs. 15 percent for tablets. However, IBM predicts tablets will account for twice as many mobile purchases as smartphones due to their larger screen size.

“Community concerns” within ICANN prompted its board to change the location of ICANN 52 to Singapore, said an ICANN news release Monday. The meeting was originally scheduled to be in Marrakech, Morocco, Feb. 8-12, it said. Some in the ICANN community felt the Marrakech location would "prevent maximum participation" in the meeting, it said. The date wasn't changed. The board said it expects to hold its first ICANN meeting of 2016 in Marrakech.