David McCabe

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy filed a federal complaint over WhatsApp’s decision to share consumer data with parent company Facebook. WhatsApp announced recently that it was planning to provide information about its users for Facebook's targeted advertising unless users choose to opt out. EPIC and the Center for Digital Democracy say that the change betrays previous promises Facebook has made on privacy. “When Facebook acquired WhatsApp, WhatsApp made a commitment to its users, to the Federal Trade Commission, and to privacy authorities around the world not to disclose user data to Facebook,” said EPIC President Marc Rotenberg. “Now they have broken that commitment.”

Specifically, the complaint invokes the FTC’s jurisdiction to police unfair and deceptive practices, as well as a 2012 agreement between Facebook and the agency that the company would take certain steps to protect user privacy. Central to their case is a long history of WhatsApp making privacy a core part of its brand. The company now makes end-to-end encryption the default setting for its users, for example, and over the years has said that it is not interested in leveraging its customers’ info.

AT&T’s top policy executive is leaving the company. Jim Cicconi will retire at the end of September from the company where he’s worked for more than a decade. Cicconi will be replaced by Bob Quinn, who leads the company’s federal regulatory advocacy.

Facebook said that it would start displaying advertisements to users who have an ad blocker installed on their desktop browsers.

Its decision comes amid rising concerns from the advertising industry that the proliferation of ad blocking software is hurting their business. Facebook said that it believes that it now gives users enough control over what ads they see to warrant circumnavigating the blocking software. “We’ve designed our ad formats, ad performance and controls to address the underlying reasons people have turned to ad blocking software,” said Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth. “When we asked people about why they used ad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying, disruptive ads,” he said. “As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software.” Bosworth also slammed ad blocking software that stops blocking ads from publishers or services that pay for the privilege, calling that “a practice that is at best confusing to people and that reduces the funding needed to support the journalism and other free services that we enjoy on the web.” The move aligns Facebook, at least in spirit, with the publishers over whom it has significant power as a primary channel for content distribution.

Republicans believe they are finally close to overhauling a landmark law that has been a cornerstone of tech and telecom regulation for decades.

The effort to update the Communications Act, which gives the Federal Communications Commission its authority, has been years in the making and has powerful support. John Thune (R-SD), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and veteran lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee are vowing to make changing the law a centerpiece of their 2017 agenda. Proponents of updating the law, first written in 1934 and last revised in 1996, say it's showing its age and is ill-suited to dealing with a world dominated by high-speed internet and mobile devices instead of phone service and traditional radio broadcasts.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s top digital operative said that she sees it as a victory if they can use content online to "personally" distract GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. “If we can distract him personally for 15 minutes a day, I’ll take that as a win,” said Jenna Lowenstein. “He’ll go on a rant on TV about something that took us an hour to make and he’s been thinking about it for 36 hours.”

Lowenstein said, however, that the bulk of the campaign's efforts on Twitter were focused on persuading voters and making the campaign's case. Clinton’s campaign has been willing to engage directly with Trump on Twitter, despite the real estate developer’s aggressiveness on the platform and willingness to engage in tweet wars. In talking about the campaign's digital strategy, Lowenstein also referenced a joke that originated with Twitter user Mark Hammer in June: “The genius of the Trump Clinton Twitter war of 2016 is that it consumes Trump's every waking minute & Clinton doesn't know it's happening.”

Democratic Reps asked the the company that makes hit game "Pokemon Go" what they were doing to make sure players don’t run up high mobile data charges using the application. The letter to Niantic CEO John Hanke was signed by the House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), as well as Reps Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Diana DeGette (D-CO).

"In addition to issues related to the game being played inappropriate locations, safety, and privacy, recent reports suggest that playing Pokemon Go could exhaust a consumer’s available monthly mobile data,” they wrote. The lawmakers specifically asked the company what practices it had in place “to minimize the amount of data consumers use when playing" the game and whether the company was working with wireless providers to make sure that customers aren’t running up huge data bills. The letter comes despite the fact that some have argued the program does not use up particularly large amounts of wireless data.

Google said that global government requests for its user data had risen in the second half of 2015 to an all-time high. Authorities made 40,677 requests in the second half of 2015, according to an update made to the company’s transparency report, up from 35,365 in the first half of the year. The number of users and accounts affected rose from 68,908 to 81,311. More than 12,000 requests were made in the United States, affecting 27,157 users or accounts.
Requests have risen every year since at least 2010, the first year when Google released 12 months worth of data. The proportion of instances in which Google handed over some data remained relatively constant, rising from 63 percent to 64 percent. That figure was 79 percent in the United States.

The team behind the Republican National Convention has spent more than a year building their technology infrastructure for the big event. Now that work is being put to the test, as the convention kicks off in Cleveland (OH). “We’re launching a startup every four years,” said Max Everett, the chief information officer for the Republican National Convention, of the massive effort to keep attendees informed, connected and secure. It takes more than a year for Everett to set up a convention — he’s worked on four — with networks built from the ground up each time. “We’ve had staff, including myself, who’ve been in and out of Cleveland for over a year now,” Everett said. The party is also working with tech and communications giants, including Google, Microsoft and AT&T, to deliver services. Here are some of the notable ways the GOP is using technology to cater to the estimated 50,000 people — not counting protesters — who will attend and cover the convention.

• Expanded Wi-Fi: A great amount of work has gone into getting the convention venue, Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena, ready to handle the thousands of devices expected to connect to its public Wi-Fi network.
• Strong connections for video: Those not in Cleveland will have options to stream the convention’s many speeches and events.
• Cybersecurity: Everett said his convention networks have been breached "like any organization."
• A beefed-up app: Not all of the convention’s technology is behind-the-scenes. When convention planners released their mobile app for the event, it was downloaded more times in its first week online than the total for the 2012 convention app.

The escalating fight between Spotify and Apple is turning heads in Washington. Spotify, a Swedish service, blasted Apple for rejecting an updated version of its popular streaming app in the online store used by iPhone users. At issue, according to Apple, is Spotify’s decision to take out a feature that let its users buy premium subscriptions through Apple’s in-app purchase feature or take steps to sign up online. In the most recent version, users are simply told that premium service is available. When users buy through the in-application purchase tool, Apple gets a cut; when they buy online, Apple gets nothing. Apple says that Spotify is violating rules designed to prevent an end-run around the commissions system. Spotify says Apple is trying to stifle competition.

Lawmakers, including Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are paying attention to the debate. The Federal Trade Commission reportedly began looking into the issue in 2015, though not through a formal investigation, as streaming services ramped up their criticism of Apple. Sen Al Franken (D-MN) also asked for a federal probe into the issue. Spotify has been making its case on Capitol Hill. The company reached out to over a dozen offices over its most recent criticisms of Apple, according to a person familiar with the effort. Their pleas have not gone unnoticed.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) took to the floor to amplify his questions about whether Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler authorized a March leak about the commission’s activities. In March, a source told Politico that a deal had been reached between two Republican commissioners of the agency and Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on reforms to the Lifeline subsidy program. The report prompted supporters of Wheeler's proposed reforms to lobby Commissioner Clyburn to forsake the deal. Chairman Thune used a portion of a floor speech to hit Chairman Wheeler for not directly answering whether he had personally authorized that leak.

“Now since Mr. Wheeler could have just said no if he did not actually authorize the leak of non-public information, that leaves only two possible conclusions,” Chairman Thune said. “One, that Chairman Wheeler did authorize the leak but is not confident in his roundabout interpretation of the rules and fears admitting to violating them. Or, second, Chairman Wheeler simply does not respect the legitimate role of Congressional oversight and believes and he is unaccountable to the American people.”