Amazon isn't required to host "the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots at the U.S. Capitol," U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle wrote.

In a first, the Federal Trade Commission is requiring a company prosecuted for privacy violations to notify consumers that it shared information about them with outside companies.

Apple prohibits app developers from deploying device fingerprinting, but some are considering doing so anyway.

In the unusually public battle, the company that let Cambridge Analytica harvest 87 million users' data is running newspaper ads headlined "Apple vs. the free internet."

The FTC is moving "deeper into the consumer review ecosystem," advertising lawyer Jeff Greenbaum says.

Apple's latest move in a long-running battle over online privacy involves clamping down on a technique that allows ad-tech companies to masquerade as first parties. The ad industry, which opposes Apple's default anti-tracking settings, is criticizing the new canonical name policy.

The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on FCC nominee Nathan Simington, who 's best known for advocating for rules to weaken Section 230.

Despite pushback from the ad industry, Apple plans to move forward early next year with new privacy settings that will require app developers to obtain users' consent before tracking for ad purposes.

It will be "very hard" for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to move forward with new rules for Section 230 before President-Elect Joe Biden takes office, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks says.

"Every American deserves the same privacy rights, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission rather than a balkanized collection of state privacy regulators," Leigh Freund, president and CEO of the Network Advertising Initiative, stated Thursday.