Daily Digest 7/10/2018 (Introducing Judge Brett Kavanaugh)

Benton Foundation

AT&T Symposium on FirstNet: America’s Public Safety Broadband Network

Broadband/Internet

Bridging the rural technology divide

To better understand how we can improve connectivity throughout Eastern Oregon, we recently visited Hermiston, Pendleton and Weston. We heard from folks who experience the divide every day. Local officials told us how the lack of high-speed broadband access is hurting the economy and even makes some residents less optimistic about the future. Rural health care providers told us how important telemedicine was in rural towns, and demonstrated how they use broadband to connect patients with doctors online, without patients needing to drive long distances to an office or hospital. Local law enforcement, first responders, and 911 dispatchers told us that next-generation networks, not the legacy infrastructure of today’s public safety system, will help them carry out vital emergency service operations, helping them save lives. All of these constituencies need better internet access. Getting there requires internet service providers (ISPs) — small ones in particular, since they tend to serve rural communities — to have a stronger business case for creating and improving that access. Several small ISPs told us about the substantial challenges they face in serving their communities, from sparse populations to regulatory burdens. Closing the digital divide won’t be easy, but the House Commerce Committee and the Federal Communications Commission have made important progress.

[FCC Chairman Ajit Pai; House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR-2)]

From Availability to Accessibility: Hyper-Local Public-Private Partnerships

In 2016, Libraries Without Borders established the Wash and Learn Initiative (WALI) to expand the access and accessibility of information to families waiting for their clothes to wash and dry in laundromats. This article discusses the private-public partnerships between small, mom-and-pop laundromat businesses and library branches that have made this work possible. For our laundromat partners, we have heard that WALI libraries provide them with a direct means to give back to their communities. It also helps that librarians have been able to help laundromat staff keep the kids from running around and jumping into laundry carts! Some laundromat owners have also told us that WALI has increased the number of returning clients. In 2006, the Coin Laundry Association created a 501c3 called the LaundryCares Foundation. At first, the LaundryCares Foundation focused on expanding access to high-quality laundry services to families in low-income communities and in post-disaster contexts. It is with Libraries Without Borders and Too Small to Fail that the Coin Laundry Association has come to understand the unique opportunity we have to also provide critical educational services inside laundromats.

[Allister Chang is Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders. Brian Wallace is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Coin Laundry Association.]

Final reports and recommendations of the FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee

Reports and recommendations that have been made to the Federal Communications Commission by Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC). These final reports and recommendations, adopted by the BDAC, were submitted to the BDAC by the following working groups:

  • Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure (adopted January 23, 2018; Addendum adopted April 25,2018)
  • Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers (adopted January 23-24, 2018)
  • Streamlining Federal Siting (adopted January 23-24, 2018)

Thirty-Seventh Quarterly Status Report to Congress Regarding BTOP

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides quarterly statutory reports to Congress on the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This report covers activities from January 1 to March 31, 2018. NTIA continues to protect taxpayer investments by proactively engaging with these grant recipients to monitor project activities and grant compliance. Each quarter, the active BTOP recipients also report their financial and project performance. NTIA analyzes these reports closely to monitor progress and compliance. NTIA continues to work with NOAA on the Commerce OIG’s report recommendations for LA-RICS and West Virginia.

Telecom

Why the Landline Phone Will Never Go Away

The piercing ring of a home phone used to command respect. “That’s how I was raised: When the phone rings, you hop to it,” I heard my mom say recently as we chatted on my new landline phone. She finally got rid of her hard-wired phone because she couldn’t stop herself from answering it, even after it had primarily become a conduit for robotic telemarketing and fraud. Despite its demotion to a means of harassment, though, the landline refuses to die. According to a 2017 U.S. government survey, about 44% of households still own traditional phones, down from 53% three years before—but still much higher than, say, the share of those buying vinyl records, another cultish throwback. For many, the reason is pragmatic. Cell service is spotty in large, rural stretches of the country and even the hills of Los Angeles (CA). Rocky elevation disrupts communication with cell towers, which are also often banned in environmentally protected areas. You can rely on a landline when the power is cut, or during an emergency like a hurricane that causes cell blackouts. And cellphones offer no real escape from harassment and distraction; we’re all being beckoned all the time, everywhere—if not by an actual voice on our cellphones, then by texts, emails, swipes on dating apps. Consumer Reports found in 2013 that modern cordless phones provide sound quality superior to the best smartphones, with minimal interference.

Privacy

House Commerce Leaders Press Apple and Google on Third-Party Access, Audio and Location Data Collection

The House Commerce Committee sent letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Page to probe the companies’ representation of third-party access to consumer data, and the collection and use of audio recording data as well as location information via iPhone and Android devices. The letters were signed by full committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Gregg Harper (R-MS), and Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH). 

The leaders pose to both Cook and Page: “Recent reports have also suggested that smartphone devices can, and in some instances, do, collect ‘non-triggered’ audio data from users’ conversations near a smartphone in order to hear a ‘trigger’ phrase, such as ‘okay Google’ or ‘hey Siri.’ It has also been suggested that third party applications have access to and use this ‘non-triggered’ data without disclosure to users.”

The letter to Cook reads: “In the wake of the privacy scandals that surfaced earlier this year, you made several comments to the press around Apple’s beliefs about privacy, including ‘[w]e’ve never believed that these detailed profiles of people that have incredibly deep personal information that is patched together from several sources should exist.’ However, users have consistently had access to apps through the App Store that you have highlighted as contradictory to Apple’s values, including Google and Facebook apps. Only a few weeks ago Apple announced changes to its App Store rules that were characterized as attempting to limit how much data third-party app developers can collect from Apple device users. These statements and actions raise questions about how Apple device users’ data is protected and when it is shared and compiled.”

The letter to Page reads: “In June 2017, Google announced changes to Gmail that would halt scanning the contents of a user’s email to personalize advertisements to ‘keep privacy and security paramount.’ Last week, reports surfaced that in spite of this policy change, Google still permitted third parties to access the contents of users’ emails, including message text, email signatures, and receipt data, to personalize content. In the context of free services offered by third parties, these practices raise questions about how representations made by a platform are carried out in practice.”

Facebook's Push for Facial Recognition Prompts Privacy Alarms

When Facebook rolled out facial recognition tools in the European Union in 2018, it promoted the technology as a way to help people safeguard their online identities. It was a risky move by the social network. Six years earlier, it had deactivated the technology in Europe after regulators there raised questions about its facial recognition consent system. Now, Facebook was reintroducing the service as part of an update of its user permission process in Europe. Yet Facebook is taking a huge reputational risk in aggressively pushing the technology at a time when its data-mining practices are under heightened scrutiny in the United States and Europe. Already, more than a dozen privacy and consumer groups, and at least a few officials, argue that the company’s use of facial recognition has violated people’s privacy by not obtaining appropriate user consent. The complaints add to the barrage of criticism facing the Silicon Valley giant over its handling of users’ personal details.  Facebook’s push to spread facial recognition also puts the company at the center of a broader and intensifying debate about how the powerful technology should be handled. The technology can be used to remotely identify people by name without their knowledge or consent. While proponents view it as a high-tech tool to catch criminals, civil liberties experts warn it could enable a mass surveillance system.

California's new consumer privacy law isn't as sweeping as you might think

Supporters of the California Consumer Privacy Act say it dramatically expands your power to control the information tech companies collect about you. Starting in 2020, you'll be able to ask businesses to delete your personal information and prevent the sale of it. Companies must also disclose the categories of information they collect, as well as the kinds of third parties that buy it. For kids under 16, companies will need to have their consent before their data can be sold. If there is an unauthorized breach of your non-encrypted personal information, you can sue companies for up to $750. The state's next attorney general will also have the authority to levy additional fines against those companies. On the surface, it will force tech leaders like Facebook and Google to be more transparent. But despite the hype, many questions remain as to whether it will actually protect consumer privacy. It outlines several items companies must provide to consumers upon request. But besides the required opt-in from minors, there is little detail on how companies should collect information in the first place.  "It looks like it will put some restrictions on the sale of personal information, but there doesn't seem to be anything there limiting the collection of any kind," said Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Internet and Society at the Stanford Law School. "In some ways, we're still in the status quo with a little more power that our data not be sold." The information the public can obtain is also fairly limited. The law repeatedly references "categories of personal information," suggesting companies could fall well short of providing specific information they have about individual consumers.

Ownership

Google may have to make major changes to Android in response to a forthcoming fine in Europe

Google could face a new record penalty in July from European regulators for forcing its search and web-browsing tools on the makers of Android-equipped smartphones and other devices, potentially resulting in major changes to the world’s most widely deployed mobile operating system. The punishment from Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's competition chief, is expected to include a fine raging into the billions of dollars, apparently, marking the second time in as many years that the region's antitrust authorities have found that Google threatens corporate rivals and consumers. At the heart of the EU’s looming decision are Google’s policies that pressure smartphone and tablet manufacturers that use Google’s Android operating system to pre-install the tech giant’s own apps. In the EU’s eyes, device makers like HTC and Samsung face an anti-competitive choice: Set Google Search as the default search service and offer Google’s Chrome browser, or lose access to Android’s popular app store. Lacking that portal, owners of Android smartphones or tablets can’t easily download games or other apps – or services from Google’s competitors – offered by third-party developers. Vestager has argued the arrangements ensure Google’s continued dominance of the internet ecosystem. As a result, her forthcoming ruling could prohibit Google from striking such app-installation deals with device makers, experts have said. Alternatively, the EU could force the company to give consumers an easier way to switch services, like search engines, on their phones or tablets.

When companies say a merger will result in lower prices, try laughing in their face

The next time a big company, and especially a telecom company, tells lawmakers and regulators that a multibillion-dollar merger will result in lower prices for consumers, I hope everyone in the room breaks out in laughter. At this point, it’s patently obvious that such pledges of price reductions are almost always hogwash. Prices rarely if ever go down after a big merger. And if they do, as has happened in the airline industry, they go up again before too long.  Daniel Rubinfeld, a law professor at New York University and a former deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust in the US Department of Justice said consumer benefits are often “grossly overstated” when companies make their case for why a merger should go through. But authorities seldom challenge many of these claims, particularly the ubiquitous assurances of lower prices, despite decades of evidence that such promises hardly ever come to fruition.

CWA: Break Up Facebook

The Communications Workers of America has joined the Freedom from Facebook coalition and is backing the effort to get the Federal Trade Commission to break up Facebook. “We should all be deeply concerned by Facebook’s power over our lives and democracy," said CWA strategist Brian Thorn in a statement. "It’s time for the FTC to hold Facebook accountable, impose strong privacy rules on the platform, and break up the monopoly. Anything else would be unfair to the American people, our privacy, and our democracy.” Freedom from Facebook wants the FTC to find that Facebook is in violation of its 2011 consent decree and then break up the company. Coalition members include The Open Markets Institute, Demand Progress, Citizens Against Monopoly, Content Creators Coalition, and MoveOn Civic Action.

Public Broadcasting

Rep Cole: Noncommercial Broadcasters Must Be Protected in C-Band Sharing

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to vote July 12 on opening up the C-Band for wireless broadband, House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole (R-LA) is calling for care and handling of noncommercial broadcasting. Chairman Cole has written FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to advise caution as the FCC ponders remaking the band to allow wireless use, either by dividing up the band or allowing for sharing. Internet service providers and broadcasters are concerned about the potential interference to the band.  Driven by an explicit desire to speed 5G and close the digital divide, the FCC has released a draft proposal to free up mid-band (C-band) spectrum (3.7-4.2 GHz) for wireless broadband--and perhaps eve auction it all to the highest and best user--a draft it plans to vote on at the July 12 public meeting. Chairman Cole is particularly concerned about the 42 million public radio listeners to the 1,270 stations that rely on those C-band frequencies, including for emergency alerts. In fact, he points out that the 2019 public radio appropriation includes money to upgrade the system. He said that investment recognizes there is not alternative means of distributing the programming to "all comers," including rural and remote areas, he says. Chairman Cole told Chairman Pai that the C-band should not be cleared (for dividing it up between incumbents and new wireless users--or shared) unless the FCC first determines that public radio's "indespensible programming services" will be protected.

Emergency Communications

FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Letter to Assistant US Attorney for Guam on 911 Fee Diversion

On July 6, 2018, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly wrote to Mikel Schwab, Civil Chief, Assitant US Attorney for the Department of Justice in the Districts of Guam & the NMI, regarding 911 Fee Diversion. He wrote, "I have received conflicting reports from representatives in Guam about the scope, legality, and impact of [911 fee diversion] and I am seeking a clearer understanding of the precise situation...According to Governor Calvo, Guam's enacting law created a special fund for 9-1-1 fees, which 'are to be used for costs associated with the E91 reporting system and are not subject to transfer or spending without prior appropriation.' It therefore appears, subject to additional legislation or appropriation, that diversion of 9-1-1 funds would be inappropriate. It would be most helpful if you could confirm your interpretation of Guam's current law."

Content

YouTube Debuts Plant to Promote and Fund 'Authoritative' News

YouTube has announced a slew of new features it hopes will help makes news on the platform more reliable and less susceptible to manipulation. The company is also investing $25 million in grants to news organizations looking to expand their video operations as part of a larger $300 million program sponsored by YouTube's sister company, Google. According to YouTube's executives, the goal is to identify authoritative news sources, bring those videos to the top of users' feeds, and support quality journalism with tools and funding that will help news organizations more effectively reach their audiences. The challenge is deciding what constitutes authority when the public seems more divided than ever before on which news sources to trust—or whether to trust the traditional news industry at all. Among the many changes YouTube announced are substantive tweaks to the tools it uses to recommend news-related videos. In the coming weeks, YouTube will start to display an information panel above videos about developing stories, which will include a link to an article that Google News deems to be most relevant and authoritative on the subject. The move is meant to help prevent hastily recorded hoax videos from rising to the top of YouTube’s recommendations. YouTube is also expanding a feature, currently available in 17 countries, that shows up on the homepage during breaking news events. This section of the homepage will only surface videos from sources YouTube considers authoritative. The same goes for the videos that YouTube recommends viewers watch next.

via Wired
Labor

High-Skilled White-Collar Work? Algorithms Can Do That, Too

Clothing design is only the leading edge of the way algorithms are transforming the fashion and retail industries. Companies now routinely use artificial intelligence to decide which clothes to stock and what to recommend to customers. And fashion, which has long shed blue-collar jobs in the United States, is in turn a leading example of how artificial intelligence is affecting a range of white-collar work as well. That’s especially true of jobs that place a premium on spotting patterns, from picking stocks to diagnosing cancer.  “A much broader set of tasks will be automated or augmented by machines over the coming years,” Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tom Mitchell, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist, wrote in the journal Science in 2017. They argued that most of the jobs affected would become partly automated rather than disappear altogether. The fashion industry illustrates how machines can intrude even on workers known more for their creativity than for cold empirical judgments. Among those directly affected will be the buyers and merchandise planners who decide which dresses, tops and pants should populate their stores’ inventory.

Journalism

President Trump's rallies get extensive airtime on Fox News

President Donald Trump’s campaign-style rallies have found a receptive audience at Fox News Channel, which unlike the other cable news networks often carries his speeches live and in their entirety. Four times in the past few weeks, Fox has set aside its usual prime-time programming to air the president speaking live to supporters at events in South Carolina, Minnesota, North Dakota and West Virginia. The network also promised live coverage of a Trump rally July 5 in Montana, where Sen Jon Tester (D-MT) faces a tough fight for re-election. Critics say Fox is essentially giving the Republican president free, repeated access to his supporters in a midterm election year. Fox counters that it is simply covering newsworthy events and that the criticism is absurd. The rallies have also been good for business.

 
Advertising

AT&T's John Tankey: HBO Must Aim for More Engagement, Data Collection

Change is coming to HBO, now that it is part of the AT&T corporate family. John Tankey is a longtime AT&T executive who now oversees HBO in his new role as chief executive of Warner Media. He told employees that HBO would have to become more like a streaming giant to thrive in the new media landscape. Stankey described a future in which HBO would substantially increase its subscriber base and the number of hours that viewers spend watching its shows. To pull it off, the network will have to come up with more content, transforming itself from a boutique operation, with a focus on its signature Sunday night lineup, into something bigger and broader. “We need hours a day,” Stankey said, referring to the time viewers spend watching HBO programs. “It’s not hours a week, and it’s not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people’s hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes.” Continuing the theme, he added, “I want more hours of engagement. Why are more hours of engagement important? Because you get more data and information about a customer that then allows you to do things like monetize through alternate models of advertising as well as subscriptions, which I think is very important to play in tomorrow’s world.”

AT&T’s advertising behemoth is coming for Facebook and Google

When AT&T officially closed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, it spun up advertising as one of four core pillars of its newly expanded business. Over the next few years, that business could grow into a beast tough enough to fight off the digital ad giants of the world. Though linear television is experiencing some secular decline, it’s still a massive advertising magnet. Before the merger, AT&T had access to a modest amount of ad inventory through its DirecTV platform. By adding Turner—home of channels including Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS and TNT—AT&T is effectively tripling the amount of ad inventory it can sell to ad buyers and marketers. But the key piece for AT&T is its massive troves of customer data. AT&T has more than 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships across its TV, video streaming, mobile and broadband services in the US, mobile in Mexico and TV in Latin America. On top of that, buying Time Warner gives AT&T a host of digital properties including HBO Now, Boomerang, FilmStruck and the upcoming DC Universe streaming service. All of that data—including email addresses, IP addresses and device IDs—will now be at Turner’s disposal thanks to AT&T. 

via Fierce
Policymakers

Judge Brett Kavanaugh decided against net neutrality and for NSA surveillance

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's past rulings suggest a reliably conservative voice on tech. His addition to the highest court in the country could vastly reshape the digital landscape. 

Perhaps most concerning for supporters of net neutrality, Judge Kavanaugh issued an important dissent as part of a hearing on the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality order, which put in place consumer protections for internet users. Judge Kavanaugh wrote that the “net neutrality rule is one of the most consequential regulations ever issued,” but that it was “unlawful and must be vacated” for two reasons. The first was simply that the FCC was not clearly granted the authority to make the rule, and thus overstepped by implementing it, Judge Kavanaugh argued. Additionally, Judge Kavanaugh wrote, restricting the actions of internet service providers amounted to intruding on their “editorial discretion.” As a result, he argued, the net neutrality rule violated First Amendment protections. Despite Kavanaugh’s dissent, the court ruled against a petition for a re-hearing, supporting the FCC’s authority on the issue.

Judge Kavanaugh also wrote in favor of a decision on the US government’s metadata surveillance efforts spearheaded by the NSA. As part of a challenge to the program, Judge Kavanaugh wrote that “the Government’s metadata collection program is entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment.” Judge Kavanaugh argued that the collection of records was not unlawful because the data was obtained through a third party, and would not constitute an “unreasonable” search based on past case law.

via Vox

Amazon Antitrust Critic Lina Khan Joins FTC as Agency Sets Sights on Tech

Lina Khan, a prominent critic of Amazon’s business practices, is joining the office of Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra as the agency prepares to increase antitrust scrutiny of technology firms. Khan, the director of legal policy at Washington think tank Open Markets Institute, will work as a legal fellow for the next few months for Chopra, one of two Democratic commissioners at the agency, he said. "Lina is sharp as a tack and works her fingers to the bone," Chopra said. "I have no doubt she will be a valuable member of the FTC team as we think about how to tackle the pressing issues that lie ahead." Khan has risen to prominence in Washington antitrust circles for her work on Amazon, appearing on numerous panels to make the case that technology platforms like the online retail giant represent a threat to competitive markets.

More Online

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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