• Amazon.com Inc. said it will challenge a Defense Department decision to award the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract to Microsoft Corp., accusing the Pentagon of “unmistakable bias” in the decision-making process. While Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he believes the choice was made “without any type of outside influence,” President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos, openly questioned the fairness of the contract process following complaints from Oracle Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Microsoft. (Bloomberg)

• The 50 attorneys general running an antitrust probe into Google are planning to expand the scope of the investigation to include the company’s search and Android businesses after previously focusing explicitly on its advertising practices, according to people familiar with the matter, who said the group will start writing up civil investigative demand subpoenas as part of the inquiry. Google declined to comment but has previously said it will cooperate with the government’s investigations. (CNBC)

• Uber Technologies Inc. could be on the hook for $649 million after New Jersey determined that the company had misclassified its workers as contractors and failed to pay $530 million in taxes for unemployment and disability insurance from 2014 to 2018, as well as $119 million in interest for nonpayment. This is the first time a local government has sought back taxes from the company over its drivers, who Uber maintains are independent contractors in New Jersey and elsewhere. (The New York Times)

How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results
Kirsten Grind et al., The Wall Street Journal

Every minute, an estimated 3.8 million queries are typed into Google, prompting its algorithms to spit out results for hotel rates or breast-cancer treatments or the latest news about President Trump. They are arguably the most powerful lines of computer code in the global economy, controlling how much of the world accesses information found on the internet, and the starting point for billions of dollars of commerce.

Apple hires pro-Trump lobbyist as it tries to avoid tariffs on iPhone parts and other products
Brian Schwartz, CNBC

Apple has hired one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Washington, D.C., to lobby on its behalf as it looks to avoid getting hit with another round of tariffs. Apple, the computer and phone making juggernaut, has tapped longtime Trump ally Jeffrey Miller to lobby on its behalf, a lobbying registration form shows. 

Yang, Gabbard take aim at tech’s legal shield
Cristiano Lima, Politico

Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) are calling for sweeping changes to the online industry’s liability protections, the latest 2020 presidential candidates to suggest amending the legal shield.

Microsoft and Salesforce Strike Partnership, Helping Thaw Chilly Relations
Dina Bass and Nico Grant, Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. are connecting more of their software and Salesforce will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud for part of its business, a thaw in a relationship that grew chilly several years ago when both companies pursued the same acquisition. 

House leaders give modernization panel more time
Kate Ackley, Roll Call

Like most any fixer-upper endeavor, renovating Congress for the modern era will take at least a year longer than originally planned. The House’s temporary Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is on track to get more time to finish its effort to update the legislative branch amid the increasing political polarization of the 2020 elections.

U.S. trade groups raise alarm over Canadian digital services tax
Andrea Shalal, Reuters

More than a dozen U.S. trade groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday urged the Trump administration to block a French-style digital services tax proposed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during October’s election.

Apple to remove vaping apps from store
Ina Fried and Mike Allen, Axios

Amid growing health concerns over e-cigarettes, Apple will remove all 181 vaping-related apps from its mobile App Store this morning, Axios has learned.

U.S. Stock Futures Edge Higher, Treasuries Decline: Markets Wrap
Samuel Potter, Bloomberg

U.S. equity-index futures climbed with Asian stocks after a senior American official signaled progress on a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies. European shares erased gains and Treasuries slipped.

How Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
Jay Greene, The Washington Post

Hermès’s $640 Clic H Bracelet is one of those luxury baubles that’s financially out of reach for most shoppers. So how is it that Amazon shoppers could recently search for the Hermès piece by name and find a bracelet for just $24.99 on the e-commerce giant’s website?

Amazon, Google Confronted by House Committee on Small Business
Joe Light, Bloomberg

Big technology companies faced another congressional inquiry on Thursday, as the House Small Business Committee questioned executives from Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google about whether their market dominance unfairly hinders upstart companies. The hearing was the latest salvo against tech giants, which are facing a litany of investigations by Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department and state attorneys general.

FCC Plans to Scrap Defective System Used to Post Fake Net Neutrality Comments
Dell Cameron, Gizmodo

After years of so-called “upgrades” have failed to allay oversight lawmakers’ concerns about the integrity of its public comment system, the Federal Communications Commission has apparently decided to scrap and replace the system entirely, multiple sources told Gizmodo.

House Communications Favorably Reports STELAR Renewal to Full Committee
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable

The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Communications Subcommittee has approved by voice vote–there were no nays to be heard–a STELAR reauthorization legislation that includes some retrans reforms and a bill transparency provision, moving it to the full committee for further consideration. But there was an astral asterisk next to that vote.  

Huawei, ZTE ‘cannot be trusted’ and pose security threat: U.S. attorney general
David Shepardson, Reuters

Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp “cannot be trusted,” U.S. Attorney General William Barr said, labeling the Chinese firms a security threat as he backed a proposal to bar U.S. rural wireless carriers from tapping an $8.5 billion government fund to purchase equipment or services from them.

Whistle-Blower’s Purported Name Keeps Evading Facebook and YouTube Defenses
Sheera Frenkel, The New York Times

A week ago, YouTube and Facebook said they would block people from identifying the government official thought to be the whistle-blower who set in motion an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. It hasn’t worked out so well.

Google Restricts Data-Sharing for Ads Under Privacy Pressure
Natalia Drozdiak and Stephanie Bodoni, Bloomberg

Google said it would make changes to its advertising technology to better protect people’s privacy following scrutiny by European Union watchdogs. Starting in February, Google will no longer divulge information to participants in its ad auction about the type of content on a website or page where an ad could appear, the Alphabet Inc. company said in a blog post Thursday.

Pinterest Has a New Plan to Address Self-Harm
Arielle Pardes, Wired

In an age when so much of the internet feels bad, Pinterest has carved out a niche as the place you come to feel good. So when the company noticed Pinterest users searching for content related to “self-harm”—not a ton, but enough to catch someone’s attention—it decided first to filter out what would show up on the site.

Civil rights groups demand changes to Facebook’s political speech policy
Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill

A coalition of civil rights groups are demanding that Facebook overhaul its political speech policy, according to a letter obtained by The Hill Thursday. The letter, dated Friday, followed up on a meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and the leaders of the groups — including the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Color of Change and the National Action Network — at the Facebook CEO’s home earlier this month.

The NSA has stopped collecting location data from US cellphones without a warrant
Colin Lecher, The Verge

American intelligence agencies quietly stopped the warrantless collection of US phone location data last year, according to a letter from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released today.

Bipartisan bill to secure election tech advances to House floor
Maggie Miller, The Hill

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Thursday unanimously approved legislation intended to secure voting technology against cyberattacks. The Election Technology Research Act would authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation to conduct research on ways to secure voting technology. 

Senators introduce bipartisan bill restricting police use of facial recognition tech
Chris Mills Rodrigo, The Hill

Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bipartisan bill Tuesday requiring law enforcement to obtain court orders to use facial recognition technology for surveillance. The Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act would limit surveillance warrants to 30 days and set rules to minimize the collection of information about individuals outside of the warrant’s scope.

Privacy Rights Group Sues DHS Over ‘Coercive’ DNA Tests at the Border
Edward Ongweso Jr., Motherboard

Privacy advocates are suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to get answers about how the agency is using new technology to collect DNA from migrant families at the border. In its lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked for information about how DHS has deployed its Rapid DNA technology, including “the number of individuals whose DNA had been collected, the accuracy of DNA matches, and the exact gene processing used to identify parent-child relationships.”

Over half of Fortune 500 exposed to remote access hacking
Joe Uchill, Axios

Over a two-week period, the computer networks at more than half of the Fortune 500 left a remote access protocol dangerously exposed to the internet, something many experts warn should never happen, according to new research by the security firm Expanse and 451 research.

A Privacy Law That Actually Protects Americans
Stu Ingis, Morning Consult

The looming implementation of California’s privacy law has thrust the debate over how to protect Americans’ personal information further into the national conversation. As the debate is playing out, we are seeing many ways to approach this question, and we applaud anyone who comes to the table to help devise stronger data privacy and security rules for all of us.

Yes, Robots Are Stealing Your Job
Andrew Yang, The New York Times

During the last Democratic debate, in Ohio, there was a moment that stood out. Elizabeth Warren and I got into a debate over the impact of automation versus trade on the elimination of manufacturing jobs.

DATA ACT: Quality of Data Submissions Has Improved but Further Action Is Needed to Disclose Known Data Limitations
Government Accountability Office

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) requires federal agencies to report spending data to USAspending.gov, a public-facing website. A total of 96 federal agencies submitted required spending data for quarter four of fiscal year 2018 (Q4 FY2018). GAO examined the quality of these data and compared the results with the results of its prior review of quarter two of fiscal year 2017 (Q2 FY2017) data, as appropriate.