Google has begun constructing its new $70 a month 1 GB fiber network in Naswhville, according to DSLReports. Comcast intends to roll out its Gigabit Pro service in Nashville, and AT&T also aims to bring its Gigapower service to the city.

Warner Bros. recently demanded that a Web user who allegedly downloaded a 1995 episode of “Friends” pay $20 to settle infringement accusations, according to TorrentFreak. “This is the first time that we’ve seen people being targeted for downloading video content that’s more than 20-years-old,” TorrenFreak writes.

Federal Communications Commission officials met with top executives from AT&T and DirecTV on Thursday, in order to discuss merger conditions, CNN reports. A formal staff recommendation for approval could go to the commissioners next week, CNN says. One of the next steps is a formal staff recommendation for approval, which may go to the commissioners as early as next week, according to the people with knowledge of the mee

Lawmakers in California's Senate have passed a bill requiring the police to obtain warrants before rifling through people's smartphones, laptops or other devices. The measure -- which aims to protect the privacy of SMS messages, email, material stored in the cloud, GPS data and social media accounts -- hasn't yet been approved by the State Assembly.

Twitter has shut down the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops, which saved tweets that politicians attempted to delete, the Verge reports. “We are truly mystified as to what prompted the change of heart, and it's deeply disappointing to see Twitter kill a project they had supported since 2012,” the Sunlight Foundation said in a statement. “It is also disturbing to us that our feed was cut almost three weeks ago and our only direct communication came from Twitter last night, when we were told that their decision was not something that we could appeal.”

The White House's plan to cede oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to a global body is moving forward, according to ICANN's CEO Fadi Chehade. He told Reuters that opposition to the plan by Republicans is fading, Reuters reports. “I think they see now that this is actually a good thing for the Internet,” Chehade told Reuters.

After booming in 2010, the number of new privacy cases filed against Apple, Facebook and Google in the Northern District of California dropped “dramatically” two years ago, according to the Recorder. One possible reason is that many of the lawsuits have settled for less than eight figures, the Recorder says. David Vladeck, former director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the legal newspaper that the “tepid settlement environment” might be due to judges' failure to consider all of the ways privacy breaches can harm consumers.

Google and Yahoo have defeated a lawsuit by psychologist Carla Ison, a California resident who alleged that the companies wrongly allowed her name to trigger “unauthorized search results,” including paid ads. A California appellate court ruled last week that Ison doesn't have any trademark rights in her name, Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman reports on Forbes. “Although no trademark owner is currently challenging Google or any other search engine over selling competitive keyword advertising, no US court ever clearly endorsed the practice, either,” Goldman writes.

Last week, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca in New Jersey ordered the Bergen Dispatch to take down a news article about a specific family court case. The newspaper wrote about the order, stating: “We have confirmed that Bergen County does currently remain part of the State of New Jersey and that currently New Jersey is still part of the Union of states that is governed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As such, Bergen County citizens continue to enjoy the right to freedom of speech and the right to a free press.” The following …

Google today launched a new privacy hub where people can see all of their privacy and security settings. The company also unveiled a new privacy policy that explains its data collection and ad targeting practices, and that offers people the opportunity to opt out of ad targeting.