Big Tech isn’t doing enough to combat online misinformation during the pandemic, because of either incompetence or profit motives, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I. Inexcusable inaction -- most recently with fake masks and COVID-19 cures -- is “at best willful ignorance and at worst putting profits over people,” Blumenthal said during a George Washington University event. “I will continue fighting for new laws and push for real enforcement to protect Americans against online swindlers and those tech companies that enable them.” Cicilline claimed misinformation is “either too profitable to eliminate completely, or that these platforms are simply too massive to manage,” questioning whether platforms should be allowed to profit from harmful content. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also appeared Tuesday. Their offices didn’t comment. The Internet Association didn’t comment.

Fitbit launched Ready for Work, a COVID-19-inspired health-monitoring solution for employers to help staffers determine whether to go into the workplace. It shows trends in users' Fitbit-tracked health metrics along with self-reported symptoms so they can assess their health from home, said the company. Changes in resting heart rate, heart rate variability and breathing rate are shown in a dashboard alongside self-reported symptoms including temperature and COVID-19 exposure, it said.

Online and other non-store sales last month rose 9% sequentially and 25.3% from May 2019, reported the National Retail Federation Tuesday. It said "businesses closed by the coronavirus pandemic began to reopen."

Voxx hired a banker to help evaluate “strategic alternatives” for EyeLock, its iris-authentication subsidiary, said Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle on a fiscal Q4 call Tuesday. “This could be a spinoff, a financing partner, a joint venture or an outright sale.” The segment never was profitable and generated sales of $100,000 for the year. COVID-19 has created much “inbound interest” in EyeLock, said Lavelle. “With everyone wearing masks and gloves, iris is quickly becoming the preferred choice for authentication.” The result is “renewed interest in EyeLock’s technology and in the company,” he said. The competitive facial-recognition technology, he said, is facing “additional backlash, given the events of recent weeks” (see 2006110059). It’s “challenging to forecast” the consumer tech business during normal times, and with COVID-19 “that remains even more so,” Lavelle said. The company is “anticipating a slow start” to fiscal 2021, expecting growth to recover in the year’s second half, he said. Q4 ended Feb. 29.

Planning for the first COVID-19-era CES is “in full swing” for a physical show in Las Vegas with a digital online component, said CTA Monday. “Though we do expect the show to be smaller, many of the world's leading tech brands are confirmed to showcase the latest technologies, and we will be announcing soon the tech luminaries who will speak on our CES stages.” Registration for the Jan. 6-9 event will open “later in the fall,” said CTA: “We all face new considerations about attending conferences, conducting business and traveling to meetings.”

The FCC precision agriculture connectivity task force July 22 meeting is virtual, at 9:30 a.m. EDT, said a public notice Monday.

The U.S. imported more laptops and tablets in April than in any previous April in the history of the category, showed Census Bureau data we accessed Monday through the International Trade Commission. There was a surge in demand for work-from-home and remote-learning tools. U.S. importers sourced 9.36 million laptops and tablets in April, a 75% sequential increase and up 28% from April 2019. The average device was worth $459.01. April also was a record-high month for China, which shipped 8.7 million devices here and was 93% of all laptop and tablet imports to the U.S.

Apple and Google should bar third-party contact tracing apps from using data for targeted advertising, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) wrote the companies Monday (see 2004170060). She also recommended the apps be prohibited from using data to identify anonymous users and be required to delete data “on a rolling, 14-day basis.” The measures will help protect consumer data and ensure appropriate collection, she said. The companies didn’t comment.

Reps. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., and Chris Stewart, R-Utah, urged the FCC Monday to "halt any increases to annual regulatory fees" for 2020 (see 2005130057). Kuster and Stewart wrote Chairman Ajit Pai that this "does not require an act of Congress." Uncertainty about "when state and local economies will fully reopen and how consumer behavior will be impacted" means "it is nearly impossible for broadcasters to predict when, or if, operating revenues may return to normal," the lawmakers said. "What is certain for these broadcasters is that expenses will continue to be incurred for the duration of the year," including regulatory fees. "Immediately notify Congress of any statutory change necessary to allow payment of regulatory fees after September 30," the lawmakers said. The agency "will review [the letter] once we receive it," a spokesperson emailed.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., pressed the FCC Friday for “additional transparency” in the $200 million COVID-19 telehealth program. The FCC said Wednesday it has approved $104.98 million (see 2006100046). “While the FCC has posted weekly updates of funding awards, we are troubled by the lack of transparency regarding the health care providers who have applied but have not yet received an award,” Pallone and Doyle wrote Chairman Ajit Pai. “We have heard reports that many health care providers are facing issues obtaining funds, particularly those serving tribal lands. Similarly, health care providers report they have been unable to receive funding for some important telehealth equipment.” Pallone and Doyle want by June 19 a weekly updated “docket that includes all the applications the Commission has received” plus which applications have been approved and when funding is disbursed. They seek “a summary of any uses or devices that were not approved.” The agency “has been administering this program in a transparent manner,” a spokesperson emailed. “We have been providing weekly announcements of all of the funding applications that have been approved along with the details of those approved telehealth projects provided by the applicants.” The FCC’s “website contains a list of all of the approved applications sorted by state,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus has been and must continue to be on processing all of the applications quickly and carefully, an effort that could be undercut if we turn our attention to creating a new system for posting pending applications.”