Business

Move to mobile: On Wednesday, President Obama set a target for all federal agencies to make their information more accessible over mobile devices by the end of this year.

“Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” Obama said in a statement. “By making important services accessible from your phone and sharing government data with entrepreneurs, we are giving hard-working families and businesses tools that will help them succeed.”

Google faces more questions from Europe European regulators on Wednesday pressed Google for more information about its new privacy policy, saying the Web giant’s response to questions so far has been “often incomplete or approximate.”

France’s Commission Nationale de L’Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, sent additional questions to the Silicon Valley search firm as it investigates the company’s privacy policy changes for potential harm to consumers.

Google was asked to respond to the questions by June 8.

Facebook, Nasdaq, face lawsuits: Retail investors are suing Nasdaq and Facebook, Reuters reported, claiming that the exchange was negligent when it handled the orders. The report says that suits have been filed in U.S. District Court of Manhattan, as well as in California.

According to a press release from the firm Glancy, Binkow and Goldberg, the suit alleges Facebook and the deal’s underwriters cut their earnings forecasts and passed the information to only a “handful of large investor clients.” The complaint, Lazar v. Facebook, Ine., et al., was filed in the Superior Court for the State of California.

Facebook responded to questions about the lawsuits in a statement Wednesday, saying, “We believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

Google, Oracle: A California jury has ruled that Google is cleared of infringement on any patents owned by Oracle in the company’s trial to determine whether or not the search giant improperly used Java APIs while developing Android.

In a statement, Google spokesman Jim Prosser said, “Today’s jury verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle’s patents was a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem.”

The three-phase trial, which first examined whether Google had infringed on copyrights held by Oracle, will now move on to determine damages.

(KAREN BLEIER - AFP/GETTY IMAGES) European regulators on Wednesday pressed Google for more information about its new privacy policy, saying the Web giant’s response to questions so far has been “often incomplete or approximate.”

France’s Commission Nationale de L’Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, sent additional questions to the Silicon Valley search giant as it investigates the company’s privacy policy changes for potential harm to consumers.

Google was asked to respond to the questions by June 8.

“CNIL considers it impossible to know Google’s processings of personal data, as well as the links between collected data, purposes and recipients, and that the obligation of information of the data subjects is not respected,” the officials said in a statement.

On March 1, Google began to combine data across its services for signed-on users — a move that would allow the company to build much more complete portraits of its users. Those profiles would enable Google to sell more targeted ads to the users.

The company has argued that the policy applies only to users who are signed on to a Google account, such as Gmail and GoogleDocs. But privacy groups blasted the new policy for not allowing account holders who did not agree to the changes to opt out.

Google is facing scrutiny from U.S. and European regulators on privacy and antitrust allegations. European antitrust enforcement officials said earlier this week that they found four areas of concern about competition with Google’s main search service and that it was open to voluntary remedies.

The Federal Trade Commission is also investigating Google’s competition practices, as competing travel and advertising firms complain the company blocks out rival services.

Related:

Google changes privacy policy

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European officials raise concerns with Google antitrust, proposes voluntary remedies

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FCC chairman speaks at cable show: When asked about Dish Network’s ad-skipping Hopper DVR Tuesday, Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski told CNBC that companies should be able to experiment with different business models. Dish’s new technology, which allows viewers to skip right over advertisements, has caused a stir in the cable industry, sparking concern that it will hurt advertising revenue.

Genachowski also said Tuesday that he supports broadband data caps, because “usage-based pricing could be healthy and beneficial” for broadband and high-tech industries,” The Washington Post reported. “Business model innovation is very important,” Genachowski said. “There was a point of view a couple years ago that there was only one permissible pricing model for broadband. I didn’t agree.”

Google-Motorola deal closes: Google has officially acquired Motorola Mobility, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday, and appointed one of its own as chief executive. On the company’s blog, Google CEO Larry Page said that Dennis Woodside will take over as Motorola CEO for Sanjay Jha.

Woodside was previously the president of the Americas region for Google.

Startup Act 2.0: Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are pushing forward with a bill that would grant special visas to make it easier for foreign students to say in the United States. Under the proposal, those with math, science or engineering post-graduate degrees from an American college would get a green card to say in the United States after their studies are done. It would also grant legal immigrants an option for an entrepreneur’s visa, the senators wrote in an op-ed in Politico.

The move was hailed by the Consumer Electronics Association, whose senior vice president of government affairs, Micheal Petricone, said it “clears away a variety of anachronistic regulations that have made it difficult for small businesses to expand and thrive.”

Political file order challenged by NAB: The National Association of Broadcasters has filed a petition with the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia asking for a review of the FCC’s order requiring broadcasters to publicize political advertising-related information online. This includes the advertising rates stations charge candidates and other advertisers.

In the petition, the NAB asks that the court “hold unlawful, vacate and set aside” the order.

Facebook slides for 3rd straight day: Facebook continues to slide in the market, dipping as low as $30.98 per share Tuesday, as the company faces questions about the viability of its business model.

As shares fell, Reuters reported that the lead consumer Internet analyst for Morgan Stanley — the company’s lead underwriter for the deal — had cut his revenue forecasts for the social network. The forecast was changed after Facebook filed a revision to its S-1, citing concern about the way a shift to mobile users will affect its revenue.

Unnamed “sources familiar with the situation” told Reuters that other underwriters also revised their estimates after the filing. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the matter.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that he supports tiered broadband Internet plans, a growing trend that has drawn criticism from Netflix.

Julius Genachowski said during a cable industry trade show in Boston that “usage-based pricing could be healthy and beneficial” for broadband and high-tech industries.

Cable service providers and wireless carriers have changed billing practices to charge users by how much data they use. They say they are moving away from unlimited data plans as users — particularly on wireless networks — congest networks with their heavy use of Internet services.

The issue was brought up by Michael Powell, a former FCC chairman and current chief executive of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Powell said cable providers want to be able to experiment with pricing plans based on tiers. Comcast last week said it would experiment with new tiers, and raised the cap for users to 300 megabytes for the lowest tier.

Public interest groups and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings have criticized the practice, saying users will be punished for watching streaming video services, for example, that tip them over their monthly limits. Hastings has also cried foul over how Comcast isn’t counting video use of its own XFinity services against data plans. That puts Netflix at an unfair disadvantage, Hastings has said.

Genachowski didn’t appear to feel the same outrage.

“Business model innovation is very important,” Genachowski said. “There was a point of view a couple years ago that there was only one permissible pricing model for broadband. I didn’t agree.”

Related:

Comcast begins trials for Internet caps

Netflix proclaims future is Internet, but threat of data caps loom

FCC delays Verizon’s bid to buy cable companies’ spectrum

The Federal Trade Commission has named an Internet privacy expert to advise on mobile privacy and competition issues as the agency takes on high-profile investigations of potential harm to consumers by the Web’s biggest firms.

Paul Ohm, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School, will begin Aug. 27 as senior policy adviser for consumer protection and competition issues at the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning.

“Paul’s keen insights on how the law applies to technology and privacy issues will be invaluable to the FTC’s work in these areas,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.

In the past two years, the FTC has settled privacy cases with Facebook and Twitter under its mandate to protect consumers. It closed without fines or punishment a separate review of Google’s privacy practices related to the company’s scooping of residential user data from WiFi networks.

The FTC is investigating Google on allegations of breaking antitrust laws. The European Commission announced Monday that Google appeared to violate antitrust rules in four business practices.

Ohm follows a string of scholars, such as Columbia University’s Tim Wu, to offer advice to the FTC — an agency that has become the nation’s top cop for the Internet industry.

“The FTC is the focal point for so many of the important information privacy debates taking place today,” Ohm said in a news release.

Ohm specializes in information privacy, computer crime law nad intellectual property law.

Related:

Google search practices draw scrutiny of E.U.

Two schools of thought: High-tech vs. no-tech

Google announces privacy changes

FTC: Apps for kids get poor grades for privacy