More than 250 iOS apps are collecting users' email addresses, serial numbers and other personal information, security researchers reported on Sunday. "The apps, which at most recent count totaled 256, are significant because they expose a lapse in Apple's vetting process for admitting titles into its highly curated App Store," Ars Technica reports. "They also represent an invasion of privacy to the one million people estimated to have downloaded the apps."

Comcast is now charging subscribers in Atlanta $35 a month to avoid surcharges for exceeding the 300 GB monthly data cap, according to DSLReports. The move comes several weeks after Comcast started charging Florida subscribers $30 a month to avoid pay-per-byte billing.

Amazon will now offer closed captions on all videos in its catalog, as part of a deal with the National Association of the Deaf. The move means that 190,000 videos will now be more accessible, according to the NAD.

One year after settling a feud about copyright infringement, Viacom's Paramount Pictures announced it has posted more than 100 of its own movies on YouTube, where they can be viewed for free. "This is important for a variety of reasons, but most of all it shows that, once again, when legacy entertainment firms learn how to embrace new technologies, rather than sue them, they're better off," Techdirt's Mike Masnick writes.

Following news of AT&T's rebuff of a customer's suggestions for improvement, T-Mobile CEO John Legere publicly announced that he's willing to take ideas from consumers, either through Twitter or at his email address. He also suggested that AT&T customers use the hashtag "IdeasForRandall" to tweet their recommendations to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

The U.S. Justice Department says Apple is now complying with antitrust laws and need no longer report to a court-appointed monitor, officials told a federal judge this week. Apple has "implemented meaningful antitrust policies, procedures, and training programs," the authorities write. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote ordered the monitor in 2013, after finding that Apple orchestrated a conspiracy to fix the price of ebooks.

AT&T rebuffed a lifelong customer who suggested to the company that it offer unlimited data for DSL subscribers, and a $10 a month fee for 1,000 text messages. "AT&T has a policy of not entertaining unsolicited offers to adopt, analyze, develop, license or purchase third-party intellectual property ... from members of the general public," Thomas A. Restaino, chief intellectual property counsel for AT&T, responded to the customer. "Therefore, we respectfully decline to consider your suggestion." The response "is the sort of ham-fisted corporate overreaction that serves no purpose but to keep customers at arm's length, writes David Lazarus at the …

The final draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was leaked late last week by Wikileaks, would allow authorities to seize and destroy any devices that have tinkered with in a way that circumvents digital locks. "This means that if you use your laptop to rip a DVD movie, your computer could be seized or even destroyed by authorities," Vice's Motherboard reports.

A judge has ruled that Inglewood, California must pay $117,741 in legal fees to online critic Joseph Teixeira, who defeated the city's copyright infringement lawsuit. Teixeira was sued after posting videos that mocked city mayor James Butts; those videos incorporated clips from city council meetings. A federal judge said that the most "plausible" purpose of the lawsuit was "to stifle defendant's political speech after he harshly criticized the city's elected officials."

The Obama administration has decided against asking Congress to pass legislation requiring tech companies to create backdoors that would enable authorities to decode messages. "The administration has decided not to seek a legislative remedy now, but it makes sense to continue the conversations with industry," James Comey reportedly told a congressional panel on Thursday.