Reporting

Thousands of Android apps may be illegally tracking children, study finds

Thousands of free, popular children's apps available on the Google Play Store could be violating child privacy laws. Seven researchers analyzed nearly 6,000 apps for children and found that the majority of them may be in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.  Thousands of the tested apps collected the personal data of children under age 13 without their parent's permission, the study found.

INCOMPAS to Hill: Paid Prioritization Must Be Off Limits

INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association (formerly COMPTEL), wants the House Communications Subcommittee to know just where it stands on paid prioritization: firmly against it. INCOMPAS said paid prioritization, an umbrella term that covers a variety of business plans involving charging for prioritizing web traffic, gives internet service providers the incentive to "monetize network congestions," leading to a world of fast and slow lanes where ISPs pick the winners and losers.

Illinois Governor Signs Plan to Expand 5G Technology, Limit Role of Local Governments

Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-IL) has signed a measure that local governments say would limit their ability to regulate big wireless facilities including AT&T and Verizon. The plan allows companies to install small cell antennas on streetlights and utility poles. Local governments cannot regulate or charge for the installation or maintenance of the wireless facilities. Gov Rauner says the plan will create jobs and provide residents with faster internet service. But local municipalities across the state oppose the proposal.

What It's Like to Live in America Without Broadband Internet

More than 24 million Americans, or about 8 percent of the country, who don’t have access to high-speed internet, according to the Federal Communications Commission—and that’s a conservative estimate. Most of them live in rural and tribal areas, though the problem affects urban communities, too. In every single state, a portion of the population doesn’t have access to broadband. The reasons these communities have been left behind are as diverse as the areas themselves.

AT&T and cable lobby are terrified of a California net neutrality bill

Internet service providers celebrated  when the Federal Communications Commission voted to eliminate nationwide net neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. But now Internet service providers in California are terrified that they could end up facing even stricter rules being considered by the California legislature.

US, British governments say Russia has hacked routers used by businesses globally

The US and British governments accused Russia of conducting a massive campaign to compromise computer routers and firewalls around the world — from home offices to Internet providers — for espionage and possibly sabotage purposes.  The unusual public warning from the White House, US agencies and Britain’s National Cyber Security Center results from monitoring the threat dating back more than a year. It was the two countries’ first such joint alert. “We have high confidence that Russia has carried out a coordinated campaign to compromise ...

California bill would restore, strengthen net neutrality protections

With the Federal Communications Commission order to repeal net neutrality rules set to take effect, a bill that would restore those regulations in California will get its first hearing.

Privacy on the Edge: Legislators' Questions

Here are just some of the issues as the capital and the nation focused on how better to protect online users' data in a world of almost universal collection and sharing. 

Who's most ready for 5G? China, not the US, leads all

In the race to get to 5G wireless technology in a real way, China is poised to lead the world.  That's according to a study conducted by Analysys Mason, which found that China had the best combination of wireless carriers committing to the technology, government backing for research, a clear rollout plan by 2020 and government commitment of spectrum, or the radio airwaves critical to deliver wireless service. After China, South Korea, then the US and Japan make up global leaders in 5G, according to the firm.

Key findings by Analysys Mason include:

Commerce Department Blocks China's ZTE From Exporting Tech From U.S.

The US blocked Chinese telecommunications-gear maker ZTE Corp. from exporting sensitive technology from America, alleging the company made false statements to US officials.  The Commerce Department has determined ZTE made false statements to the Bureau of Industry and Security in 2016 and 2017 related to “senior employee disciplinary actions the company said it was taking or had already taken,” the department said.

Stuck in the ‘dial-up’ age

Steve McCloud’s farm is in a black hole on the Kansas prairie. On the map, the Harvey County farm is connected to the superhighway of information that has become a necessity in today’s society. But travel down the dirt road to his farmstead just 4 miles north of Newton and a different reality emerges. The McClouds have slow and somewhat sporadic access to the World Wide Web. A mile to the north Moundridge Communications is running new fiber. But the small-town telephone company can’t help him because he is not in its territory.

Report for America Supports Journalism Where Cutbacks Hit Hard

A group of journalists have decided to do something about the diminution of newsrooms at the local level. They’re making reporting part of a national service program. Report for America, a nonprofit organization modeled after AmeriCorps, aims to install 1,000 journalists in understaffed newsrooms by 2022. Now in its pilot stage, the initiative has placed three reporters in Appalachia.

Why Europe, not Congress, will rein in big tech

Technology companies are readying themselves for sweeping new privacy rules that go into effect in May 2018 across the European Union. They could face billion-dollar fines if they fail to give European users far more control over their personal information. Whether the US Congress follows the European model, as some lawmakers floated, or whether big tech companies determine it’s too cumbersome to treat the 500 million people of the EU differently from the rest of the world, Europe is likely to keep setting the global pace for aggressive regulation.

Facebook Takes the Punches While Rest of Silicon Valley Ducks

As Facebook has taken it on the chin over the way it has handled the personal information of its users, the leaders of other tech companies have demonstrated that even in publicity-hungry Silicon Valley, it is entirely possible for billionaire executives and their sprawling empires to keep a low profile.

Michael Ferro sells stake in Los Angeles Times parent Tronc to McCormick family for $208.6 million

Michael Ferro, who resigned recently as chairman of Chicago-based newspaper chain Tronc, has struck a deal to sell his entire stake in the company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ferro, who owned more than 25% of Tronc -- the parent of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers -- agreed to sell his more than 9 million shares at $23 per share, or $208.6 million, to McCormick Media, pending approval by regulators.

Mark Zuckerberg was grilled. Silicon Valley took it personally.

The tech industry’s engineers and entrepreneurs saw the Facebook hearings as more than just the grilling of one of its stars.  To them, the congressional criticism against Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg felt like a referendum on the industry itself and on the social network’s growth-at-any-cost playbook that hundreds of start-ups have sought to emulate over the last decade — and that some have turned against.

Facebook Picks Fight With Cambridge University Over Researchers

After tackling U.S. lawmakers, Mark Zuckerberg is now taking on one of England’s oldest and most prestigious academic institutions amid a widening probe into the misuse of Facebook user data.  During his U.S. congressional testimony, the Facebook chief executive officer said his company was questioning “whether there was something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger reaction from us.” Representatives for Facebook did not elaborate on what a "stronger reaction" might mean.

FCC’s pending vote on national security raises more concerns

Nokia, the Rural Wireless Association and others are raising additional concerns about the Federal Communications Commission’s planned vote in April on a proposal that is designed to bar companies deemed a national security threat from supplying equipment to US carriers.

Google loses landmark 'right to be forgotten' case

A businessman has won his legal action to remove search results about a criminal conviction in a landmark “right to be forgotten” case that could have wide-ranging repercussions. The ruling was made by Justice Warby in London. The judge rejected a similar claim brought by a second businessman who was jailed for a more serious offence. The claimant who lost, referred to only as NT1 for legal reasons, was convicted of conspiracy to account falsely in the late 1990s; the claimant who won, known as NT2, was convicted more than 10 years ago of conspiracy to intercept communications.

Foundations Gear Up to Influence 2018 Elections

With congressional and state elections heating up, grant makers are focusing on new ways to help connect the people they serve to the political process — and ultimately lead more of them to the ballot box. Those efforts were in the spotlight at a conference held by the Council on Foundations, which drew more than 200 grant makers from across the country.

Democrats plan to push privacy rules after Facebook hearings

House Democrats plan to use the Facebook hearings as the starting point for an aggressive push for privacy legislation, which sets them up to move a bill forward if the House flips in November 2018. Democrats on the House Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over tech issues, will introduce proposals in the near term. That gives Democrats the opportunity to point to their efforts even if Republicans fail to make good on their regulatory threats.

CLIC Strongly Rebukes FCC BDAC Process and Outcome

In a strongly-worded letter submitted on April 12, 2018, CLIC has communicated to the Federal Communications Commission its deep concerns regarding the selection process and associated restrictive outcomes of its Broadband Deployment Advisory Council (BDAC).

The National Enquirer, a Trump Rumor, and Another Secret Payment to Buy Silence

Late in 2015, a former Trump Tower doorman named Dino Sajudin met with a reporter from American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. A few weeks earlier, Sajudin had signed a contract with A.M.I., agreeing to become a source and to accept thirty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to information he had been told: that Donald Trump, who had launched his Presidential campaign five months earlier, may have fathered a child with a former employee in the late nineteen-eighties. Sajudin declined to comment for this story.

FCC Chairman Rejects Senators’ Request To Review Sinclair’s Broadcast License

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai immediately shot down a request to investigate Sinclair Broadcasting Group for distorting the news, and to pause the review of Sinclair's pending acquisition of Tribune Media. Chairman  Pai said the FCC doesn’t have the authority to revoke licenses based on the content of newscasts.