September 3, 2015 (Eggheads and Bacon)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE END OF THE INTERNET DREAM
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Jennifer Granick]
[Commentary] The Dream of Internet Freedom is dying. The Internet is less open and more centralized. It’s more regulated. And increasingly it’s less global, and more divided. These trends: centralization, regulation, and globalization are accelerating. And they will define the future of our communications network, unless something dramatic changes. Twenty years from now:
You won’t necessarily know anything about the decisions that affect your rights, like whether you get a loan, a job, or if a car runs over you. Things will get decided by data-crunching computer algorithms and no human will really be able to understand why.
The Internet will become a lot more like TV and a lot less like the global conversation we envisioned 20 years ago.
Rather than being overturned, existing power structures will be reinforced and replicated, and this will be particularly true for security.
Internet technology design increasingly facilitates rather than defeats censorship and control.
It doesn’t have to be this way. But to change course, we need to ask some hard questions and make some difficult decisions.
[Jennifer Granick is the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society]
benton.org/headlines/end-internet-dream | Medium
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

GOVERNMENT AWARDS $133 MILLION CONTRACT TO HELP HACK VICTIMS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Lisa Rein]
The Defense Department will start late in September to notify 21.5 million people whose background investigation files were hacked by the Chinese that they can sign up for protections under a $133 million contract. The contractor, Identity Theft Guard Solutions LLC, will have a sweeping mandate to monitor the hacked security clearance data, some of the most sensitive in the government, for identity theft. It will help protect the identities and credit ratings of the breach victims for three years and possibly longer, offering theft insurance and experts who specialize in restoring stolen identities, officials said. The company won the first piece of a government-wide contract to provide protection services for future data breaches. These contracts, which include two other companies, will be worth $500 million over the next five years. More than six million children whose parents’ background investigation data was hacked also will be eligible to enroll for protections, even if their names do not show up in the 130-page Standard Form-86 document that most victims of the intrusion filled out for background checks.
benton.org/headlines/government-awards-133-million-contract-help-hack-victims-pledging-better-customer-service | Washington Post
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ADVERTISING

XBOX ONE PROMOTER SETTLE FTC CHARGES
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
A California-based online entertainment network has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by paying “influencers” to post YouTube videos endorsing Microsoft’s Xbox One system and several games. The influencers paid by Machinima, Inc., failed to adequately disclose that they were being paid for their seemingly objective opinions, the FTC charged. Under the proposed settlement, Machinima is prohibited from similar deceptive conduct in the future, and the company is required to ensure its influencers clearly disclose when they have been compensated in exchange for their endorsements. According to the FTC’s complaint, Machinima and its influencers were part of an Xbox One marketing campaign managed by Microsoft’s advertising agency, Starcom MediaVest Group. Machinima guaranteed Starcom that the influencer videos would be viewed at least 19 million times.
benton.org/headlines/xbox-one-promoter-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-endorsement-videos-posted-paid | Federal Trade Commission | FTC blog | Wall Street Journal | Washington Post | Broadcasting & Cable
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TELEVISION

FCC APPROVES GOOD FAITH RETRANSMISSION REVIEW ITEM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has voted, unanimously according to a source there, to issue its rulemaking proposal revisiting its definition of good faith retransmission consent negotiations. The item is in response to a congressional directive and looks at what should be included in a totality of circumstances test that goes beyond the per se violations already enumerated -- although commenters are hoping the FCC will update/clarify some of those as well. Another FCC source confirmed that the item basically asks questions rather than comes to any tentative conclusions about what should be included in totality of circumstances or be made per se violations. But it has gotten a lot of industry input, particularly from cable and satellite operators. For example, the American Television Alliance, which includes those cable and satellite operators, wants the FCC to declare blackouts, channel and program net bundling, third-party negotiations, withholding online content and more to be not in good faith. Broadcasters say that the system, generally, is in good shape and that consumers should be more worried about escalating cable network prices and customer service issues.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-approves-good-faith-retrans-review-item | Broadcasting&Cable
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STUDY: CABLE CONTRIBUTED $368 BILLION TO ECONOMY IN 2014
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Cable was responsible for $386 billion in economic impact in 2014 and accounted for 2.7 million jobs. That is according to a new study from Bortz Media released by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, which commissioned the report. Attention Capitol Hill: The study found that there are at least 300 cable jobs in each congressional district, some with as many as 2,000. Since 2002, according to the study, the cable industry has added 1.25 million jobs. Other takeaways NCTA was trumpeting included broadband infrastructure investment of more than $230 billion since 1996; average peak connection speeds of 30 Mbps in every state; and total cash and in-kind public service outlays of more than $1 billion.
benton.org/headlines/study-cable-contributed-386-billion-economy-2014 | Broadcasting&Cable | NCTA
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OWNERSHIP

FCC APPROVES CHARTER-TWC PROTECTIVE ORDERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has approved the protective orders and associated framework for treating sensitive information in the Charter-Time Warner Cable deal. That means the FCC can start the shot clock on the merger review and open a comment window. The three Democratic Commissioners had already voted to approve, but the item could not be official until the other two votes were in or the time to vote had run out. The Republican Commissioners had issues with how the FCC had addressed protection of sensitive info more generally as part of a court remand of its protective orders in the AT&T-DirecTV and Comcast-TWC deal reviews. The votes are now all in, with Commissioner Ajit Pai dissenting in part and approving in part and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly dissenting.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-approves-charter-twc-protective-orders | Broadcasting&Cable
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

ROB MCDOWELL: FEDERAL SPECTRUM AUCTION BILL TEED UP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rob McDowell, a former commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, says to look for senior members of the Commerce Committees in both Houses of Congress to introduce legislation, perhaps by the end of September, on freeing up government spectrum for auction. McDowell is currently a partner at Wiley Rein, which has a number of wireless clients, but he pushed for freeing up more government spectrum as a commissioner as well. He said that helping "put the wind in the sales" of a government spectrum bill was the recent AWS-3 auction, which raked in an "eye-popping" almost $45 billion. The legislation would identify spectrum to reclaim and likely provide for unlicensed use, as well as set time frames for that to happen.
benton.org/headlines/rob-mcdowell-federal-spectrum-auction-bill-teed | Broadcasting&Cable
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TRANSPORTATION

WE'RE ONE STEP CLOSER TO MAKING IN-FLIGHT CALLS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Michael Sasso, Todd Shields]
Airlines should be able to decide whether passengers can make phone calls during flights, a committee told US regulators weighing the issue. The Transportation Department’s Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection approved the recommendation, said Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who heads the panel. The committee approved a proposal that said “if safe and secure,” the Transportation Department could let airlines decide on mobile-phone use, Kane said. The panel, which met in Washington, includes representatives of airlines and consumers, and evaluates the Transportation Department’s consumer protection programs. The Federal Communications Commission in 2013 agreed to consider lifting its ban on in-flight calls. The proposal sparked opposition from travelers, flight attendants and others over the prospect of yapping seat mates on crammed flights. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he would use his authority to decide whether voice calls are fair.
benton.org/headlines/were-one-step-closer-making-flight-calls | Bloomberg
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CONTENT

WHEN BIG DATA BECOMES BAD DATA
[SOURCE: Pro Publica, AUTHOR: Lauren Kirchner]
A recent ProPublica analysis of The Princeton Review’s prices for online SAT tutoring shows that customers in areas with a high density of Asian residents are often charged more. When presented with this finding, The Princeton Review called it an “incidental” result of its geographic pricing scheme. The case illustrates how even a seemingly neutral price model could potentially lead to inadvertent bias -- bias that’s hard for consumers to detect and even harder to challenge or prove. Over the past several decades, an important tool for assessing and addressing discrimination has been the “disparate impact” theory. Attorneys have used this idea to successfully challenge policies that have a discriminatory effect on certain groups of people, whether or not the entity that crafted the policy was motivated by an intent to discriminate. It’s been deployed in lawsuits involving employment decisions, housing and credit. Going forward, the question is whether the theory can be applied to bias that results from new technologies that use algorithms.
benton.org/headlines/when-big-data-becomes-bad-data | Pro Publica
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GOOGLE AND APPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Conor Dougherty]
Google said that starting in November it would begin penalizing sites that show these “please install our app” ads — at least in cases where they obscure what’s on the page — by deeming them less mobile friendly. That designation will lower their ranking on Google’s mobile search engine. Google didn’t list the offenders, but it includes a broad spectrum of popular services like Yelp, Pinterest and LinkedIn. There is no doubt that a lot of users find these ads annoying. But where Google describes a policy change that will make life more pleasant for users, others see an attempt to defend the web — where Google makes much of its money — from the armies of apps that mobile users favor. “Google saw its users fleeing mobile search via an exit door that led to apps,” said Luther Lowe, vice president for public policy at Yelp, the local search engine and persistent Google critic. “To make sure they can continue to extend their search monopoly onto mobile, Google is essentially telling app developers, ‘We’re losing too many of our users to your apps, so your new users will have to go through a doggy door.’”
benton.org/headlines/competitors-accuse-google-using-search-diminish-apps | New York Times
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JOURNALISM

TWITTER AND THE NEWS
[SOURCE: American Press Institute, AUTHOR: Tom Rosenstiel, Jeff Sonderman, Kevin Loker, Maria Ivancin, Nina Kjarval]
At a moment when the network is poised to make a number of changes, the American Press Institute and Twitter, in collaboration with research company DB5, have produced a new study that probes the relationship between news use and the Twittersphere. Twitter users also tend to be younger than social media users in general. They tend to use the service heavily -- the majority several times a day -- and their use of the network is increasing how much news they consume. Almost all Twitter users are also consumers of other forms of news media. While Twitter users follow news in general on the service, and sometimes do so just as a way of passing time, they act differently when they are following breaking news, becoming even more participatory -- commenting, posting and sharing at moments when events are moving fastest. Among the findings from the study:
Nearly 9 in 10 Twitter users in the study (86 percent) say they use Twitter for news, and the vast majority of those (74 percent) do so daily.
Roughly the same number of people say they use Twitter to be alerted to breaking news (40 percent) as to keep up with the news generally (39 percent).
benton.org/headlines/twitter-and-news-how-people-use-social-network-learn-about-world | American Press Institute | The Hill
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

DONALD TRUMP AND THE PRESS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]
[Commentary] How Donald Trump and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) responded under pressure revealed the type of person he is and the type of president he would make. Trump threatened Megyn Kelly for no other reason than to stifle other journalists who might want to ask tough but reasonable questions. If Americans learned that a leader in another country was threatening reporters, we would be outraged. Yet here it is. Right here. Right now. Kelly went on what Fox says was a planned vacation and Trump suggested he may have been the cause. What kind of candidate takes credit for bullying the media? Then Trump allowed Univision reporter Jorge Ramos to be ejected from a press conference for asking questions about immigration without being called upon. Ramos was later readmitted and permitted to ask about immigration, during which he said Trump could still deport immigrants compassionately. “I have a bigger heart than you do,” Trump replied. Trump’s non-specific answer to the question ended with a personal insult directed at the reporter. Trump’s vendetta against the press extended to the Des Moines Register. When the paper issued an editorial calling for Trump to withdraw from the campaign, he refused to give the paper’s reporters credentials to attend his campaign event in Iowa in July. He also called the paper “failing” and “very dishonest.” Other journalists he thinks have treated him harshly he refers to as “losers” or unintelligent, as if the definition of lack of intelligence is to not agree with him.
[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a former cultural ambassador for the United States]
benton.org/headlines/difference-between-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders | Washington Post
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September 3, 2015 (Eggheads and Bacon)