A new Government Accountability Office report on facial recognition technology shows the need for federal privacy regulations, according to Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.). "The newly released report raises serious concerns about how companies are collecting, using, and storing our most sensitive personal information," Franken said in a statement. "It’s important that, at the very least, the tech industry adopts strong, industry-wide standards for facial recognition technology. But what we really need are federal standards that address facial recognition privacy by enhancing our consumer privacy framework." The GAO noted in its report that no federal law regulates commercial uses of facial-recognition …

Internet service providers and industry trade groups filed new legal papers asking an appellate court to vacate the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules. The FCC's "approach is both unlawful and unwise, abandoning a long-successful policy that has produced hundreds of billions of dollars in broadband infrastructure investment," trade group USTelecom says.

When it comes to customer service, Comcast is the country's worst-ranked company, according to a new poll by 24/7 Wall St. and Zogby Analytics. AT&T, Dish and DirecTV also placed in the top five. The findings are based on a poll of more than 1,500 adults, who answered questions about customer service at 151 well known companies in a variety of industries.

Hacker Samy Kamkar says he has built a gadget that enables the takeover of GM vehicles with OnStar systems. The gadget, dubbed OwnStar, allows people to locate, unlock and start vehicles within WiFi range. The hacker says that the gadget draws on a vulnerability in OnStar's mobile software.

Security researchers say they can now recognize users with a "high degree of certainty" based on their online typing patterns. "Since the pauses between keystrokes and the precise length of time each key is pressed are unique for each person, the profiles act as a sort of digital fingerprint that can betray its owner's identity," Ars Technica reports. The researchers say they've developed a Chrome browser plugin that potentially could defeat the profiling.

Around 15% of Americans still don't go online, according to a new report by Pew Research. That figure has remained constant for around three years; in 2000, when Pew began surveying people about Web use, 48% of Americans said they don't use the Web.

Germany's privacy regulators said on Tuesday that Facebook must allow people to use pseudonyms, Re/code reports. The Hamburg data protection authority also said that Facebook can't ask users to provide proof of their identities.

Conan O'Brien is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit by comic writer Alexander Kaseberg, who alleges that jokes he posted to Twitter were used by O'Brien on TV. Kaseberg is seeking a restraining order and at least $600,000.

The state of Georgia has sued PublicResource.org for allegedly infringing copyright by publishing an annotated copy of the state's laws. "While the basic Georgia legal code is available to the public, the state charges a lot of money for the 'Official Code of Georgia Annotated,'" Techdirt reports.

Consumer groups opposed to AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV say that the deal won't reduce prices or encourage competition. "AT&T could take the money that they are using to wipe out a competitor and invest that to expand their own broadband network," said Matt Wood, policy director for the consumer group Free Press. "They didn't need a merger for that."