Netflix is “really optimistic” about Ultra HD as a subscription and revenue “driver,” CEO Reed Hastings said on a quarterly earnings interview Wednesday. “So as more and more Ultra HD TVs get sold at major electronics outlets over the next five years, more and more people will want Ultra HD” from Netflix, he said. Each Ultra HD stream is about 15 Mbps, “so it takes a good-quality Internet connection,” he said. “Of course, that's getting more and more reliable. So when we see those coming together, we see over time a significant percentage of our membership upgrading to get the Ultra HD service, again, over the next couple of years.” Netflix is confident about its long-term success in Japan after launching there this fall, Hastings said. It plans to launch in Japan with “aggressive” pricing and local content, including “some local originals,” he said. “We're really focused on doing a great job.” Japan is “unique” among other markets “because it's very brand-sensitive,” Hastings said. “So Japan will probably be our slowest market to get to a certain penetration threshold, but it may be one of our best markets in the long term because when the Japanese society embraces a brand, it's a very deep connection, very long-term. So we're willing to make that investment, knowing that it's not the quick route to success that it might be in other countries.”

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released a Last Call Working Draft of Tracking Compliance and Scope, a blog post on the W3C site said Tuesday. “This specification defines a set of practices for compliance with a user’s Do Not Track (DNT) tracking preference to which a server may claim adherence.” Comments are accepted through Oct. 7, it said.

“Recently disclosed vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and Microsoft Windows may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with system privileges” by “convincing a user to visit a website or open a file” that could allow an attacker to combine Flash and Windows vulnerability to take “full control of an affected system,” said the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team in an alert Wednesday. US-CERT said that “since attackers continue to target and find new vulnerabilities in popular, Internet-facing software, updating is not sufficient, and it is important to use exploit mitigation and other defensive techniques.” Don't "run untrusted Flash content,” and “review the Bulletin and apply the necessary updates,” US-CERT said.

The Software and Information Industry Association is hosting an event July 23 that will focus on rethinking the meaning of data privacy and consider whether the current policymaking is working to advance individual privacy, an SIIA news release said Wednesday. “The issues of data privacy and security are too often over-simplified -- more data equals less privacy, which demands more regulation,” the release said. FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen will deliver opening remarks. A panel discussion on how big data and the IoT have spurred valuable privacy debates and whether current and proposed regulations could inhibit innovation and economic progress will follow. The event is 12-1 p.m. at the Capitol Visitor’s Center SVC 201-00.

Google’s Web form to submit revenge porn removal requests is now available. The announcement of the form's availability came quietly last week in a one-sentence update added to the end of Google’s initial announcement last month that it would remove revenge porn from search results (see 1506190048). In addition to revenge porn, Google will remove other sensitive personal information, like bank account numbers or an image of a handwritten signature from search results, the form said. Federal legislation banning revenge porn may be introduced next week (see 1507140063).

Some 70 members of Darkode, an underground, invite-only, online meeting forum for those interested in buying, selling and trading malware, botnets, stolen personally identifiable information, credit card information, hacked server credentials and other pieces of data and software obtained from cybercrimes, were arrested and charged, the Department of Justice and the FBI said in a blog post Wednesday. Law enforcement agencies from 20 countries were involved in Operation Shrouded Horizon, making the Darkode takedown the largest coordinated international law enforcement effort ever directed at an online cybercrime forum, a DOJ news release said. A dozen individuals in the U.S. were indicted, search warrants were served in the U.S. and the FBI seized Darkode’s domain and servers, DOJ and the FBI said. The investigation focused primarily on the Darkode members responsible for developing, distributing, facilitating and supporting the “most egregious and complex cyber criminal schemes targeting victims and financial systems around the world,” they said. “Of the roughly 800 criminal internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world and was the most sophisticated English-speaking forum for criminal computer hackers in the world,” U.S. Attorney David Hickton of the Western District of Pennsylvania said. “This is a milestone in our efforts to shut down criminals’ ability to buy, sell, and trade malware, botnets and personally identifiable information used to steal from U.S. citizens and individuals around the world,” FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano said.

Whenever Christos Catsouras searches his last name on Google, photos of his deceased daughter Nikki’s body and the wrecked car she was in during a fatal accident in 2006 surface, Catsouras said during a Consumer Watchdog-hosted news conference in Santa Monica, California, Wednesday. Having "the right to be forgotten" apply in the U.S. would be “the most amazing thing for our family and many other families out there,” Catsouras said. Photos of Nikki’s body were leaked by the California Highway Patrol and Catsouras said some individuals attach the photos and send them to him in emails. There is “absolutely no justification for these links to continue to exist,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson. Removing photos or links from search engine results isn't censorship because the content still exists and such removal is possible for a company to do because Google is honoring removal requests in Europe, Simpson said. In June, Google announced it would remove revenge porn from its search results, Simpson said. “To me, some of the photos that are haunting the Catsouras family are just as abusive and harmful [as revenge porn] and I don’t understand why Google won’t remove those links,” Simpson said. Consumer Watchdog initially contacted Google asking the company to honor right to be forgotten requests in the U.S., but Simpson said Google never responded. Bing and Yahoo should also honor removal requests, Simpson said, explaining Consumer Watchdog has focused on Google because “they are the big dog” and Google more than any other search engine or company describes itself as privacy friendly. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the FTC against Google last week alleging that Google’s refusal to offer Americans the right to be forgotten privacy tool that Europeans have is an unfair and deceptive practice -- a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act (see 1507070023). Simpson said the FTC has confirmed receipt of the complaint and is considering it, which Simpson said he took to be a positive sign. Simpson added that Consumer Watchdog would drop the complaint if Google did what was right and honored removal requests. Simpson said search engines are the first step, but as society figures out what are appropriate privacy protections in the digital age, additional policy changes may be necessary. Google had no immediate comment.

Adobe released a security update to address “critical vulnerabilities” in Shockwave Player for Macintosh and Windows Tuesday, said an alert from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. U.S.-CERT said in a separate alert that Adobe also released security updates addressing vulnerabilities within the classes of Flash Player that could allow a “remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system." Affected versions of Adobe include Adobe Flash Player 9 through 18.0.0.204.

Match and OkCupid operator Match Group said Tuesday that it agreed to buy online dating service PlentyOfFish for $575 million cash. “As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish's addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio,” Match Group CEO Sam Yagan said in a news release. Match Group’s purchase of PlentyOfFish would add an additional 3 million unique users for Match Group-owned products. Match Group parent company IAC’s brands get traffic from more than 370 million users across more than 150 brands, IAC said. The purchase is expected to close in Q4 subject to regulatory approval by Canada’s minister of industry, Match Group said.

The FTC Consumer Protection Bureau “confirmed the FTC is considering Consumer Watchdog’s complaint” last week (see 1507070023) that Google’s failure to honor right to be forgotten requests in the United States is an “unfair and deceptive practice,” Consumer Watchdog said in a news release Tuesday. Consumer Watchdog will be joined tomorrow in Santa Monica, California at an event advocating for right to be forgotten requests to be honored in the U.S.by Christos Catsouras, the father of an 18-year-old California woman whose name “remains linked in Internet search results to graphic leaked police photos of her fatal car crash,” CW said. "Since the leak my family has been forced to relive the shock every time the horrific images reappear simply because there are no tools in place to stop it,” Catsouras said. “‘The Right To Be Forgotten' is the only chance for my family to find closure, and to finally grieve." Google and the FTC had no immediate comment.