Daily Digest 10/15/2018 (Listening to Consumer Privacy Advocates)

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Table of Contents

Privacy

Listening to Consumer Privacy Advocates  |  Read below  |  Robbie McBeath  |  Analysis  |  Benton Foundation
Facebook Says Fewer Users Impacted by Recent Cyberattack than First Thought (We're cool: just 30 million people)  |  Wall Street Journal
How to see if your data was accessed in the Facebook hack  |  Vox
Sen. Grassley (R-IA) Wants Answers About Google+ 'Glitches'  |  Read below  |  John Eggerton  |  Broadcasting&Cable
Many US businesses doubt they will meet California privacy law deadline  |  Read below  |  Analysis  |  PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Wireless

The FCC Decides Rural America Has Too Many Broadband Options, So They Are Taking Away 5G Spectrum To Give To The Big Guys.  |  Read below  |  Harold Feld  |  Analysis  |  Tales of the Sausage Factory
Sens Rubio, Warner Urge Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau To Reconsider Huawai Inclusion in Canada's 5G Network (Sen Marco Rubio  |  Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Rural Wi-Fi Project Improves Wildfire Monitoring in Southern California  |  Government Technology
Ovum: Tech 5G will light up $1.3T in revenue for media and entertainment companies over the next decade  |  Fierce

Content

Extremists Are Using YouTube Less  |  Bloomberg

Telecom

Editorial: FCC should let law enforcement loose on robocallers  |  Toledo Blade

Journalism

Eli Pariser: Trump’s USA Today op-ed demonstrates why it’s time to unbundle news and opinion content  |  Nieman Lab

Elections

Was There A Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?  |  New Yorker

Agenda

FTC Announces Agenda for Nov 1st Session of its Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century  |  Federal Trade Commission

Policymakers

Sen Sullivan Still Blocking FCC Nominations  |  Read below  |  John Hendel  |  Politico
New Leadership for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board  |  Read below  |  Cristiano Lima  |  Politico
Former-Rep Tom Perriello (D-VA) is New Head of US Programs at Open Society Foundations  |  Open Society Foundations

Stories from Abroad

Twitter Under Formal Investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission for How It Tracks Users in the GDPR Era  |  Fortune
WhatsApp has a literal road show in India to warn about the spread of fake news  |  Fast Company
Today's Top Stories

Privacy

Listening to Consumer Privacy Advocates

Robbie McBeath  |  Analysis  |  Benton Foundation

On Oct 10, privacy advocates got their turn to speak before the Senate Commerce Committee, laying out the necessity of a national privacy law that goes beyond the protections already offered by some states. The hearing highlighted that consumer advocates and industry representatives don’t always see eye-to-eye on how protective a national law should be. But who will get to influence the legislation while it is drafted? “I want to be clear that the next federal privacy law will not be written by industry,” Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said. “Any federal privacy law should incorporate views from affected industry stakeholders and consumer advocates in an effort to promote privacy without stifling innovation.” Obviously, with elections just around the corner and a lame duck Congress returning in November, we will not see comprehensive privacy legislation this year. But these recent hearings could help inform proposals that the 116th Congress considers next year and beyond. 

Sen. Grassley (R-IA) Wants Answers About Google+ 'Glitches'

John Eggerton  |  Broadcasting&Cable

Add Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) to the lengthening list of lawmakers who want answers from Google about the Google+ data vulnerability it chose not to tell its users about. Sen Grassley wants the company to explain how it is protecting personal info given that the "glitches" apparently went unaddressed for three years. Sen Grassley invited Google to join Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at an April 10 hearing on data privacy and social media, but he says Google declined because it said it didn’t have the same data privacy issues as Facebook had. “Despite your contention that Google did not have the same data protection failures as Facebook," Grassley wrote in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, "It appears from recent reports that Google+ had an almost identical feature to Facebook, which allowed third party developers to access information from users as well as private information of those users’ connections. Moreover, it appears that you were aware of this issue at the time I invited you to participate in the hearing and sent you the letter regarding Google’s policies,” Sen Grassley wrote.

Many US businesses doubt they will meet California privacy law deadline

Analysis  |  PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Only half of US businesses affected by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 expect to be compliant by the 2020 deadline, according to a PwC survey of more than 300 executives at US companies with revenues of $500 million or more. The law — CCPA for short — is expected to provide state residents sweeping data-privacy rights that most businesses will only be able to honor by first overhauling their personal data-governance capabilities. The US retail sector — largely unaffected by 2017’s scramble for compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — may be particularly challenged in meeting the deadline: less than half (46%) of retail and consumer respondents say they will be compliant by 2020. Confidence in meeting the deadline is similarly lacking in the industrial products (44%) and health (47%) sectors. CCPA’s impact will extend well beyond the Golden State and its 39.5 million residents. More than three quarters of respondents to our survey say they collect personal information on California residents. Many are considering whether to extend CCPA’s rights to all of their US employees and consumers for operational simplicity and long-term readiness for potential federal privacy legislation.

Wireless

The FCC Decides Rural America Has Too Many Broadband Options, So They Are Taking Away 5G Spectrum To Give To The Big Guys.

Harold Feld  |  Analysis  |  Tales of the Sausage Factory

The Federal Communications Commission is about to take spectrum away from rural providers.  Public Knowledge sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to change the draft Order altering the rules for the “Citizen’s Broadband Radio Service” (CBRS) to keep several of the old rules in place. Specifically, we want the FCC to keep at least some license areas at census tract size, rather than making them bigger and therefore unaffordable for small providers like wireless ISPs (WISPs). We also want the FCC to keep “use or share,” a rule that says that if the licensee is not using a piece of their license area it becomes open for general use on an unlicensed basis until the licensee actually starts using it. We’re also asking the FCC to leave the license terms at 3 years with no expectation it will be renewed (that is to say, it gets re-auctioned at the end of 3 years) rather than go to 10-year terms with an expectation of renewal. Finally, if the FCC is going to change the terms of the licenses as proposed, they need to have some meaningful build out obligations to ensure that rural areas get served.

Policymakers

Sen Sullivan Still Blocking FCC Nominations

John Hendel  |  Politico

Despite Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s attempt to resolve Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) concerns over the subsidy funding flowing to his state, the senator said the fix isn’t enough and that he will keep blocking reconfirmation of Commissioner Brendan Carr, at least until he meets with Chairman Pai to discuss the matter. Both Sen. Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) placed holds on the Carr nomination because of frustrations over subsidies sought by an Alaskan telecom company. Sullivan’s objections are not “necessarily how much they’re paying” to his state’s telecom companies but what he judges the lack of government predictability for the telecom industry. “What I am trying to make sure I get is that going forward, there’s transparency, there’s rules, there’s predictability, so people have certainty and they can make investment decisions and sign contracts,” said Sen. Sullivan. “But right now, the way in which they operated, the system in my view has been very damaging to my constituents.” The FCC’s current subsidy system is “completely difficult, no rhyme or reason,” according to Sen. Sullivan, who points to the wrangling of Alaska’s GCI Communications Corp.  An FCC spokesman was quick to counter that telecom companies need to justify why they need millions in subsidies. “When companies like GCI fail to maintain or transmit that documentation in a timely manner (or provide Commission staff with inaccurate information), they reap the consequences of their own delays and failure to comply with federal law.” And in any case, the FCC’s recent actions are bound to “provide the company with even greater certainty for future years,” the spokesman added.

New Leadership for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Cristiano Lima  |  Politico

The Senate confirmed the nominations of three members, including a new chairman, to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board — which has stood as a one-person show for roughly two years. Now the five-seat body, which monitors the government’s national security efforts, will get a needed boost with the additions of Jane Nitze and Edward Felten as board members and Adam Klein as chairman. The confirmations come at a critical time, with the review of the European Union-US Privacy Shield data sharing agreement fast approaching. 

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Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.


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