A federal appellate court has refused to intervene in a dispute over whether a user of the defunct cyberlocker Megaupload can retrieve his data. The user, Kyle Goodwin, lost access to the material more than five years ago, when the federal government indicted Megaupload's executives for criminal copyright infringement and shut down the service. Represented by the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, he sought a return of his files. The trial judge never held a hearing on that request, prompting the EFF to ask the 4th …

Inspired by HBO comedian John Oliver, net neutrality fans just succeeded in crashing the FCC’s Web site. As Motherboard reports: “During Sunday night’s episode of ‘Last Week Tonight,’ Oliver urged viewers to visit his recently-purchased URL gofccyourself.com, which redirects to the FCC's comment submission page, and express opposition to [Republican FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai’s plan.”

The country's two largest broadband providers, Comcast and Charter, plan to jointly explore entering the wireless market, they said today. The companies already have contracted to use Verizon's network and infrastructure.

The Illinois state Senate approved the Right to Know Act, which would require Google, Facebook and other Web companies that collect personally identifiable information to disclose their data-sharing practices to users. The measure, which passed by a 31-21 vote in the Senate, will now go to the House.

The Department of Justice is investigating whether Uber violated any criminal laws by allegedly using the software program "Greyball" to circumvent officials who were investigating the ride-hailing company, Reuters reports. It's not yet clear whether anyone is likely to face charges.

"What we fear is a future in which potent personal data is combined with increasingly sophisticated technology to produce and deliver unaccountable personalized media and messages at a national scale," write Parsons School of Design associate professor David Carroll and NYC Media Lab Executive Director Justin Hendrix in an essay exploring the relationship between targeting techniques, fake news and politics. They're calling on people to pressure tech companies to "behave in the interests of the democracies that enabled their unrivaled success," and to pressure lawmakers into reforming …

European antitrust authorities have reached a settlement with Amazon over its ebook licensing contracts. The deal requires Amazon to stop including "most-favored nation" clauses in its contracts with publishers; those clauses allowed Amazon to demand better deals than other distributors.  

Former FTC consumer protection head Jessica Rich has joined Consumer Reports, where she will serve as vice president for consumer policy mobilization on data privacy and security. Rich was with the FTC for 26 years before leaving in February.

Scrapping the net neutrality rules could stifle free speech online, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said today. "Republicans in Washington want to jeopardize the fundamental freedoms that we enjoy by using an open internet," he said at an event hosted by New America.

Airbnb and HomeAway have settled a lawsuit against San Francisco by agreeing to automatically register all hosts with the city. The deal could "bring transparency and accountability to a short-term rental market that has operated largely beyond the reach of regulation," the San Francisco Chronicle writes.