San Francisco Chronicle

AT&T is attempting to pull its landline service from much of California and the Bay Area, raising concerns among those living in rural areas who rely on the service during emergencies. AT&T submitted an application early in 2023 to end its status as California’s Carrier of Last Resort, or COLR, i

Google has tentatively settled a $5 billion lawsuit accusing the tech giant of secretly tracking the internet activities of millions of users who believed its Chrome browser protected their privacy while in “incognito” mode, according to court documents. The class action lawsuit, scheduled for a February 2024 trial, was temporarily halted by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers after a preliminary settlement was reached between Google and the consumers’ lawyers. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2020, claimed that users in “incognito” mode were misled by Google’s Chrome browser, thinking

California will reverse a decision to scale down the expansion of broadband to internet-deprived low-income areas like East Oakland and South Central Los Angeles. Earlier in 2023, the state cited inflation and rising construction costs as reasons why primary broadband service expansions would be gutted, said Patrick Messac, Director for #OaklandUndivided, an internet advocacy nonprofit.

California is expected to significantly scale down a multibillion-dollar plan to expand high-speed broadband networks soon. And the data the state is using to make the amendments is inaccurate, experts and advocates say, meaning lower-income areas with some of the lowest rates of internet access, like East Oakland, could lose out the most. In pockets of Alameda County, which includes East Oakland, up to 38% of residents don’t have internet access, nearly triple the 13% statewide average.