OVERNIGHT TECH: Court speeds up FTC suit over Google privacy changes

THE LEDE: A federal judge granted the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) an accelerated briefing schedule Thursday for its lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission over proposed changes to Google's privacy policy. The advocacy group claims the changes violate the search giant's previous agreement with the FTC over the failed rollout of its Buzz social network. EPIC hopes to force the FTC to block the changes under the terms of the settlement, but Google argues the group is wrong about both the facts of the case and the law itself. The accelerated briefing schedule should allow both the FTC and EPIC to weigh in before the changes take effect on March 1.

Lawmakers want more answers from Google on privacy: Also on Thursday, Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) wrote to Google, pressing the Web giant for more answers about planned changes to its privacy policy. The letter is a follow-up to last week's closed-door briefing between Google officials and lawmakers. After the briefing, Bono Mack told reporters she did not think Google was entirely "forthcoming," and said she would press the company for more answers.

E-Rate fraud draws prison sentence: The former owner of two Illinois-based tech firms, Gloria Harper, was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison for providing bribes and kickbacks to school officials in connection with the federal E-Rate program. Harper is one of 19 individuals that has been sentenced to prison for defrauding the federal subsidy program for disadvantaged schools and libraries. She pled guilty last June, when her two conspirators were both sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

“The E-Rate program brings enormous benefits to students everywhere. I applaud today’s action by DOJ. This successful prosecution reflects the collaborative efforts of the DOJ and FCC to protect E-rate from waste, fraud, and abuse, and to deter future misconduct," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Chinese spy convicted with stealing trade secrets from Motorola: A federal judge convicted a Chinese-born U.S. citizen on Wednesday of trying to leave the country with thousands of pages of sensitive documents belonging to Motorola Solutions. The judge found that Hanjuan Jin "criminally betrayed Motorola by stealing its trade secrets,” but found her not guilty on three charges of spying for the Chinese military. She faces up to 10 years in prison on each of three counts of stealing trade secrets.

Kohl slams GOP spectrum bill: Senate Antitrust subpanel Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) urged congressional lawmakers to drop a provision in the House spectrum legislation that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from imposing eligibility restrictions on companies that bid on the airwaves. Kohl argued the provision would impede the FCC's ability to promote competition and harm consumers. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has argued the bill would allow AT&T and Verizon to buy up all the spectrum at auction, a fear shared by smaller wireless providers. But AT&T argued the FCC shouldn't "stack the deck" in favor of smaller firms.

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