April 2011

CTO Chopra not sweating potential decline in spectrum auction revenue due to merger

Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra was the guest this week on C-SPAN's "The Communicators."

He suggested that he is not concerned that the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile could shrink the revenue from prospective spectrum auctions. The White House has endorsed spectrum auctions as a way to raise nearly $30 billion to build a public safety network, invest in research and development, and pay down the deficit. If approved by Congress, the mechanism would offer incentives to TV broadcasters to sell off their spectrum so it can be repurposed to mobile broadband. But lately, the Federal Communications Commission/White House campaign to jolt Congress into passing auction legislation has been plagued by questions about how much money the auctions will raise. The proposed combination of AT&T and T-Mobile has provoked concerns that revenue would plummet in a post-merger world where T-Mobile wouldn't bid and AT&T would have a mitigated need for spectrum.

Chairman Issa pledges to save transparency sites

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is pushing to save the Obama Administration's transparency websites from budget cuts to the E-Government fund. Chairman Issa recently expressed optimism that sites like Data.gov, USASpending.gov and others can survive despite a 50 percent cut in funding for E-Government programs in the budget deal recently approved by Congress. "We will find a way, and this is a personal pledge, to make sure they are not shut down," he said at a panel discussion. "The specific funding goes away but reprogramming authority would still be available. Our view is on a case-by-case basis we will be able to keep them open." The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reportedly been making contingency plans for taking the sites offline since the House passed a budget last month that slashed funding from $34 million in fiscal 2010 to just $2 million in 2011.

Microsoft, Google to testify at Oversight hearing on federal regulations

On April 18, the House Oversight Committee will hold a field hearing in San Jose (CA) on federal regulations that constrain the growth of high-tech jobs featuring witnesses from Google and Microsoft. The hearing will be held at San Jose City Hall and will include a discussion of business practices developed by high-tech industries that could help reduce waste, fraud and abuse if implemented by the federal government.

Slim’s cellphone subsidiary hit with $1 billion fine by Mexico’s competition commission

Mexico’s anti-trust commission has hit billionaire Carlos Slim’s cellphone subsidiary with a 12 billion peso ($1 billion) fine. The Federal Competition Commission said the cellphone subsidiary, Telcel, engaged in monopolistic practices associated with call terminations, America Movil said in a filing with the Mexican stock exchange. The company said it is studying the fine and all options for appeal. America Movil is the largest provider of wireless service in Latin America with 225 million subscribers. Its 2009 revenue totaled $30 billion.

Retailers Retool Sites to ease Mobile Shopping

Retailers who once envisioned a vast new market of mobile shoppers eagerly hitting “buy” on their cellphones have run headlong into a harsh reality: their customers are all thumbs. Even as phones get more versatile and sophisticated, many retailers’ mobile sites and apps make it difficult to shop. It can be hard to examine items on a small screen, and the pages are often slow to load. Perhaps most frustrating, the process of entering information on a mobile keyboard requires either surgical precision or very tiny fingers. As a result, retailers report that only about 2 percent of their sales are coming from mobile devices, a number well below the expectations of many e-commerce analysts.

Snooping: It's not a crime, it's a feature

Cellphone users say they want more privacy, and app makers are listening. No, they're not listening to user requests. They're literally listening to the sounds in your office, kitchen, living room and bedroom. A new class of smartphone app has emerged that uses the microphone built into your phone as a covert listening device -- a "bug," in common parlance. But according to app makers, it's not a bug. It's a feature! The apps use ambient sounds to figure out what you're paying attention to. It's the next best thing to reading your mind.

President Obama Releases the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

President Barack Obama released the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This Strategy seeks to improve security in cyberspace and e-commerce.

We can see how this plays out in at least two areas. First, passwords alone are not secure enough, which contributes to online fraud and identity theft. It is also inconvenient to have to remember dozens of passwords to access different online services. Second, it is difficult for individuals to prove their true identity when they want to perform a sensitive transaction online, like banking or accessing health records. These problems are limiting the full economic potential of the Internet, because certain services cannot easily be moved online. NSTIC envisions a private sector led effort to create a new infrastructure for the Internet, built on interoperable, privacy-enhancing, and secure identity credentials. This new infrastructure is centered around choice. First, you don't have to use it at all. If you do, you can choose when or how to use it. Under this strategy, you will be able to choose from many different identity providers: perhaps your bank, your health care provider, your email provider, or any other preferred organization. We seek to create an ecosystem of many different providers, so that there is an option that suits every individual who wants to participate. Individuals can also choose between different credentials, or ways of logging in: cell phones, keychain “fobs,” smart cards, and many others – in fact, there will undoubtedly be ways that have not yet even been invented.

National Identity Strategy Envisions a More Trustworthy Internet

[Commentary] Why should the American people care about a “strategy” for Internet identity?

First, a growing number of our Internet transactions require an identity. We’re continually prompted to create new accounts to participate in online social networking, shopping, banking, and forums. Most of us have no idea how our identifying information will be used or shared. It certainly doesn't help that we have to offer a fresh set of information to every new service that comes along. Without a new approach, this trend will continue. We deserve better control over our identity and stronger assurances that it will not be misused. Innovation isn't slowing down; we have to catch up.

Secondly, services that will make our lives easier and more convenient—sometimes involving highly sensitive information—are still waiting to come fully online. Health care and government services are slowly staking out an Internet presence, but they will remain at the starting line until a reliable and trustworthy platform for establishing and confirming user identity exists.

We’re pleased to see the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace has made individuals its first priority. The Administration must remain firmly dedicated to an identity ecosystem that is voluntary, protective of privacy, affords users a wide variety of choices for whether and how they will convey their identity online, and compliant with a full set of Fair Information Practice Principles. This effort must also be built on the foundation of comprehensive privacy legislation. We encourage the Administration to incorporate its existing support for baseline privacy legislation with the Strategy’s implementation. Finally, the Strategy recognizes that anonymity and pseudonymity -- crucial elements of our privacy and First Amendment rights -- are and must remain vital characteristics of the Internet alongside any new identity ecosystem. The Strategy is the beginning of a long journey through complicated technology standards and policy rules. If its vision is realized, consumers, businesses, and governments all have a lot to gain. It will only succeed, however, with meaningful engagement from all stakeholders. We are eager to see the Strategy’s implementation plan and hope the Strategy leads to a productive partnership.

[Harris is President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology]

What’s next for privacy on the Hill?

New bills and discussion about the recent Epsilon data breach have made privacy a popular talking point on the Hill. But a lot of politics stands between the talk and actual movement on legislation.

Four major privacy proposals have been floated on the Hill this session. In February, Reps Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) each introduced privacy legislation. Earlier this week, Sens John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) and Reps Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Jim Matheson (D-UT) offered privacy bills for each chamber. The privacy bills have some key differences. Stearns’s bill promotes industry self-regulation and requires companies to notify consumers about privacy policies and data use. The bill from Sens Kerry and McCain encourages self-regulation but also requires an opt-in measure to share sensitive personal information, or information that could harm a person if released, depending on the situation. Rush’s reintroduced bill requires companies to provide an opt-out option before they can share data with other companies. Speier’s privacy package includes the only proposed legislation with a do-not-track measure; the other bill is aimed at protecting financial information. Having bipartisan bills in the House and Senate is a key step forward, said Justin Brookman, a privacy expert from the Center for Democracy and Technology. That at least gives this week’s bills a chance to move along, he said. Even that, though, might not be enough.

Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted in what could serve as a death blow to the industry. Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the defendants were arrested in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others. Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. On April 15, Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the FBI pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

Benton

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