As the Federal Trade Commission has requested, the White House reportedly is preparing to ask Congress to bolster the FTC’s power to police privacy violations by Internet-related businesses, including online advertisers, app makers and companies that make the smart, connected consumer devices that are fast populating the so-called Internet of Things. The proposal, which is expected to be presented to lawmakers next month,  would require the companies to get permission from consumers before collecting and sharing their personal information, according to Politico.

Khadija Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an “empowered woman.” While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumsizing her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was called “female genital mutilation.” In a candid and funny talk, she shares what it was like to make her way in a “clitoris-centric society,” and how she works to make sure other women don’t have to figure this out.

With Box's successful IPO last week, there are now 25 public companies in the cloud computing market worth more than $1 billion, according to Bessemer Venture Partners' Cloud Index. And the market cap of the top 30 cloud tracked by the BVP Cloud index hit more than $155 billion last week, too. (The index tracks 41 public companies.) That's grown by a lot. In 2013, when the index was new, the top 30 companies were worth about $100 billion and only 15 of them were worth over $1 billion. Here's another shocker: Byron Deeter and Kristina ShenNo.

Congressional Hearing Highlights the DifficultiesDespite bipartisan rhetoric, comments from lawmakers and witnesses at a Jan. 27 House hearing illustrate why reaching a consensus on a national data breach notification law remains a challenge.