Samsung is offering a free one-year trial to Texture by Next Issue to customers who buy the Galaxy Tab S2 through Nov. 20. The online service offers subscriptions to 160 magazines for $9 per month for the basic version, and $14.99 for premium. The offer is only for new subscribers, said Samsung.

More than 25 privacy advocates and national consumer groups, including the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog, Consumers Union, Electronic Privacy Information Center and the World Privacy Forum, sent a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray Thursday, expressing “grave concerns raised by the early reports of the significant data security breach affecting T-Mobile customers and applicants whose information was stored by Experian” (see 1510020051). Since Experian is one of three nationwide consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), “each holding data on over 200 million consumers,” the groups asked the agencies to “fully investigate this breach, including whether other Experian databases have been breached,” the letter said. The groups asked the agencies to determine how hackers would be allowed to “access the information of T-Mobile customers but not the main credit report files,” and determine if different security measures are in place. “If there are no such differences, doesn’t this raise the troubling possibility that the servers holding highly sensitive credit and personal information of over 200 million Americans is vulnerable to a data hack by identity thieves?” the letter asked. A breach of a credit reporting agency takes the problem of data breaches to a “whole new and dangerous level given the extraordinarily large amounts of critical financial information they hold,” the letter said. “Identity thieves could play havoc of an unimaginably huge scale with access to such data, with potentially devastating consequences to consumers, financial institutions, and the American economy,” it said. The groups also expressed concern with Experian’s decision not to offer a security or credit freeze to consumers, which is the only way to stop new account financial identity theft, the groups said. The “breached firms are only offering weaker credit monitoring, so we also ask the regulators: Is there any authority for the CFPB to require the nationwide CRAs to provide free security freezes to affected consumers?” it said. Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster issued a news release Wednesday saying as many as 263,000 people in the state could be affected by the breach.

The number of wireless charging-ready devices outpaced charger shipments, but resonant wireless charging should boost the overall wireless charger market, said a report from ABI Research. Some 213 million Powermat/Rezence chargers are forecast to ship by 2020, but they will be outpaced by the 713 million Qi chargers expected to ship during the period, said ABI. Many smartphone original equipment manufacturers haven’t bundled wireless chargers with handsets, which has stunted the market for chargers, said ABI, but growing awareness and dropping prices should drive sales of chargers per active user, said the research firm. Broadcom, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Samsung are among the companies that belong to both the Qi and Powermat/Rezence trade groups, but companies “will need to send clear signals about their product support to consumers,” said ABI Tuesday. Samsung ships devices today support both Powermat and Qi, but ABI predicts Samsung eventually will throw its full support behind Qi in future products.

Customers who buy a $299 Netgear Nighthawk DST AC1900 router from Best Buy will get Geek Squad set-up help to customize settings, connect devices and secure their network, plus a year of unlimited Geek Squad support by phone or online, the chain said in a Wednesday announcement. The promotional offer is to address the growing problem in U.S. homes of strained Wi-Fi networks and slower connection speeds caused by adding more connectivity devices, Best Buy said. The Netgear router was built to Best Buy’s specifications and “can keep up with the growing number of connected devices in the home, while also virtually eliminating Wi-Fi dead zones,” it said. The router can support 10 or more connected devices at speeds up to 1.9 Gbps, it said.

“For America’s drone technology to actually take flight, we need a regulatory framework that embodies a risk-based approach to integrating unmanned aircraft systems [into the national airspace] to maximize safety, utility and economic benefit,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro in a news release Wednesday. Shapiro’s comments came as the House Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing on ensuring aviation safety in the era of unmanned aircraft systems. “The drone industry is set to take off one-million flights per day within the next 20 years given the right regulatory environment,” for uses ranging from search and rescue to package delivery to filming movies to precision agriculture, Shapiro said. “Until the Federal Aviation Administration releases clear rules authorizing drones in the national airspace, the industry and CEA will continue to educate drone enthusiasts about the safe and responsible operation of drones through the Know Before You Fly campaign.”

Sprint’s decision to sit out the TV incentive auction, after lobbying hard for a spectrum reserve, teaches a valuable lesson, Free State Foundation President Randolph May said Wednesday in a blog post. “The foremost lesson is one I have tried to hammer home for many years,” May wrote. “Absent a true market failure -- and there is not one with respect to the marketplace for broadband services, including wireless services, the Commission needs to quit trying to manage competition.” May’s comments miss the point of Sprint’s advocacy, Larry Krevor, vice president-legal and government affairs-spectrum, said in an email. “Yes, Sprint supported strengthening the spectrum reserve, along with virtually the entire wireless communications industry, other than Verizon and AT&T,” he said. But the record makes clear Sprint’s focus was on persuading the FCC to minimize the “impairment” 600 MHz winners would suffer from remaining TV broadcast operations, Krevor said. “Sprint’s efforts helped the Commission improve the quality of the auctioned spectrum, thereby producing better spectrum for all auction participants to bid on and higher auction revenues.”

Verizon’s existing wireless advertising programs -- Relevant Mobile Advertising and Verizon Selects -- will be combined with the AOL Advertising Network starting in November, wrote Verizon Chief Privacy Officer Karen Zacharia in a blog post Wednesday. “The combination will help make the ads our customers see more relevant to them, and therefore more useful, across the different devices and services they see.” Verizon is changing how its programs operate, including who receives the Verizon advertising identifier or Unique Identifier Header (UIDH), which is essentially a string of random characters that's transmitted with unencrypted Internet requests over the Verizon Wireless network, Zacharia said. UIDH doesn’t contain or transmit personally identifiable information; doesn’t broadcast Web browsing information to advertisers or others; and when the AOL and Verizon programs are combined, will be transmitted only to entities that are on a preapproved white list, she said. Verizon’s advertising approach is “in line with best-in-class industry standards for privacy protection,” Zacharia said. “Our customers will continue to have choices about whether or not to participate in these programs.”

The Federal Aviation Administration wants to levy the “largest civil penalty" it has proposed against an unmanned aircraft system operator "for endangering the safety of our airspace” by operating drones in a “careless or reckless manner,” the agency said in a Tuesday announcement. The proposed $1.9 million civil penalty against SkyPan International of Chicago alleges that between March 21, 2012, and Dec. 15, 2014, SkyPan conducted 65 unauthorized operations “in some of our most congested airspace and heavily populated cities [including New York City and Chicago], violating airspace regulations and various operating rules,” the FAA said. The flights involved aerial photography, and the aircraft were “not equipped with a two-way radio, transponder, and altitude-reporting equipment,” the FAA said. SkyPan also failed to obtain a certificate of waiver or authorization for the operations, the release said. SkyPan has 30 days to respond to the FAA’s enforcement letter, it said. SkyPan didn’t have an immediate comment.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau will host a webinar on recent modifications to Part 1 rules on designated entities and other auction-related matters, including joint bidding, Oct. 28, the FCC said. The session starts at 1:30 p.m. EDT, the agency said. An agenda is to be announced later.

National Consumers League officials asked the FCC to conduct a new "bill shock" survey, "given the proliferation of smartphones, data intensive applications, and international roaming fees." There's anecdotal evidence of consumer concerns over bill shock due to international roaming, said an NCL ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 10-207. NCL repeated a recommendation that wireless carriers require "an affirmative opt-in from subscribers before roaming charges are assessed."