November 2011

Google offers opt-out for Wi-Fi tracking

A year and a half after Google admitted that it had inadvertently collected unsuspecting people's personal information sent over the Internet via their wireless routers, the company has implemented a way for people to opt-out of having their routers tracked in the first place.

Google records and stores locations of Wi-Fi networks on its servers for two reasons: to provide a location services like Google Maps for Android smartphone users if GPS is unavailable and to more quickly locate a GPS signal when one is around. The locations of the wireless networks are typically crowd-sourced by Android phones themselves. But another way Google collects locations of Wi-Fi routers is to drive its Street View cars around neighborhoods. In addition to the cameras attached to their roofs that film 360-degree images for Google Maps, the cars also have antennas that discover local Wi-Fi networks.

Help Document the 2012 Ground Game

Elections, for most people, can be like icebergs: what you see is only a small portion of the whole campaign. In an age of micro-targeted direct mail, Facebook ads and “robocalls,” voters can experience a campaign in very different ways than their neighbors do, to say nothing of the view that reporters traveling with candidates get. The New York Times is embarking on an experiment to illuminate the “ground game” of the 2012 presidential race, and we need your help. We would like to see what the presidential campaign looks like to you: what messages are you getting through the mail or seeing on billboards? Have you spotted interesting fliers around town or in local publications? Take a picture, and send it to us. We will even accept screenshots of text messages and materials from candidates and other groups. We are looking more for the raw materials of the campaign — postcards, posters and the like — than pictures of campaign events. When candidates are trying to win your vote, what tools are they using besides television?

Communications Workers of America: Verizon shifting tax burden to the '99 percent'

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) accused Verizon of not paying its fair share of federal taxes. Verizon paid no federal taxes between 2008 and 2010, and actually received a $1 billion rebate from the U.S. Treasury, according to a report prepared by the Citizens for Tax Justice.

Robert McIntyre, the report’s lead author, said that tax rebates to companies like Verizon are simply “wasted dollars, that could have gone to protect Medicare, create jobs and cut the deficit. Too many corporations are gaming the system at the expense of the rest of us.” Edward McFadden, a spokesman for Verizon, said that counting both state and federal taxes, Verizon actually paid $1.79 billion in taxes between 2008 and 2010. Additionally, its federal rate was lower in those years because of deferred taxes that it will pay later, he said. CWA said Verizon has taken advantage of the "Reverse Morris Trust" rule, which allows companies to not pay taxes on assets it sells off. The labor leaders said they are urging the congressional supercommittee on deficit reduction to end the Reverse Morris Trust rule to help the government collect more revenue.

Sinclair: Broadcasting Is Answer to Wireless Traffic Needs

The Coalition for Free TV and Broadband, of which Sinclair is a member, has released a paper detailing the $60 billion it says the U.S. Treasury would get if it left spectrum in broadcasters hands.

The paper is an effort to quantify the superiority of using broadcasters to handle heavy wireless traffic. "A Broadcast Overlay service that is technically compatible with commercial wireless networks would allow users to consume more data at a lower cost with a higher quality of service," it argues. The coalition argues the incentive auction plan will "destroy" 2,000 TV stations, with the government "confiscating" TV stations so the spectrum can be turned over to wireless companies who already have "plenty" of spectrum. The coalition is encouraging supporters to contact their legislators, including a separate listing of the deficit supercommittee that could make the auctions part of its recommended deficit reduction plan, due at the beginning of next week.

Chairman Rockefeller encourages FTC to crack down on Facebook

During a nomination hearing he chaired, Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) encouraged Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz to crackdown on Facebook for allegedly misleading users about its privacy policy.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Rockefeller acknowledged that Chairman Leibowitz would not be able to respond because of his agency's policy against discussing ongoing investigations. "So that leaves me more time to say what I feel," Chairman Rockefeller said. He said that any action the FTC takes against Facebook should require Facebook to obtain its users' consent before changing any policies and should set up a "rigorous enforcement regime." Later in the hearing, Chairman Rockefeller said he watched Charlie Rose's interview of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. He said the Facebook executives acted like "the world is ours" and "we are the future" but that no "sense of restraint" or "collateral damage… was brought up." Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said he could not comment on any possible settlement with the FTC, but he pointed to references in the transcript of the Charlie Rose interview in which Sandberg and Zuckerberg discussed their views of privacy.

Chairman Leibowitz tried to assure Republican and Democratic legislators alike that when the final voluntary recommendations from the commission are released on food marketing to kids, they will be balanced, modified from the earlier draft, totally voluntary and essentially unenforceable. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) expressed the most concern about the proposed food marketing guidelines, whose original draft drew heavy fire from ad agencies for being overly restrictive. Sen Hutchison pointed out that some of the foods--yogurt and 2% milk--whose marketing the guidelines suggested could be restricted, were on the list of foods approved by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture in their 2010 dietary guidelines. Chairman Leibowitz said he hoped to get the FTC's final recommendations out soon, but said they were only that. He pointed out that the FTC's portion of the interagency working group recommendations were focused on marketing, not dietary guidelines, and that he, too, was surprised when he learned that his daughter's breakfast of Special K and yogurt would not pass muster. As he has said before, the guidelines have been modified to reflect stakeholder input, including recommending that they apply to 2-to-11-year-olds, rather than extending them to up to 17-year-olds.

Internet Advertisers Revise Privacy Program After FTC Concerns

An Internet-advertising industry program to enforce privacy safeguards is expanding in response to concerns from U.S. regulators and consumer-advocacy groups.

The voluntary program, announced last year by an advertising-industry coalition, calls for letting consumers block ads that are based on their Web-browsing habits. The Federal Trade Commission expressed concern that the program didn’t apply to other forms of online tracking. The changes will let consumers block other kinds of Internet-data collection, with the exception of information gathering required for companies’ “operations and system management,” said Stu Ingis, general counsel for the Digital Advertising Alliance, which administers the program. The alliance “has announced important changes to address how data can be collected and used online,” Jessica Rich, deputy director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau, said. “We’ve been encouraging them to make these changes and believe it’s an important step for consumers and for self-regulation.” Under the revised program, participating companies will also be barred from collecting data on consumers’ Internet browsing to determine eligibility for employment, credit, medical treatment or insurance, Ingis said. The changes will take effect next year, he said.

House Commerce Committee Releases Report on the Workload of the Federal Communications Commission

The House Commerce Committee released a report on the Workload of the Federal Communications Commission. The report is a summary of data, requested by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL), regarding the number of complaints, petitions, applications, and other pending items at the Commission.

The FCC has 1,471,912 pending indecency complaints, with over a third of those - 568,720 -- over five years old. The good news is that aside from those indecency complaints, which are pending court resolution of the FCC's indecency regulatory authority, there are virtually no other pending complaints. The other good news is that under FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the backlog of TV station license renewals has been reduced by 30%. The bad news, the report suggests, is that many of the licenses that have not been renewed may also be held up by those pending indecency complaints. As of July 5, according to the FCC figures, the FCC had 3,472 open proceedings, 3,213 of which, or 93%, had been dormant for more than two years.

Chairman Walden said, “This staff report confirms what everyone already knows: Chairman Genachowski has improved many of the processes of the Commission, but there is much work left to be done. That’s why it’s so important to move forward with process reform legislation now, so that the agency locks in the gains it has already made, and so that the public will see it continue to improve into the future.”

Chairman Stearns said, “As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I have challenged agencies to rid themselves of unnecessary regulations and provide certainty to the industries they regulate. The Federal Communications Commission’s recent closing of 999 dockets signifies Chairman Genachowski’s commitment to good process, but much more needs to be done. Thousands of petitions and licenses have been pending at the Commission for more than five years, and the FCC has missed its own internal deadlines 29 percent of the time. The Commission has also repeatedly missed deadlines set by Congress, including the release of the Satellite Competition Report and Video Programming Report. Congress has tasked the FCC with reviewing the competitive landscapes of these industries annually in order to determine the appropriate regulatory framework. How can the agency appropriately regulate an industry it has not comprehensively analyzed since 2008? I hope the FCC will work on these shortcomings and show signs of improvement by its next report due in January. In the meantime, I will work with my colleagues on FCC process reform legislation.”

C-SPAN Seeks To Cover Health Care Appeal In High Court

C-SPAN has asked the Supreme Court to allow it to televise oral arguments in the challenge to the president's health care reform law, likening it in importance to the Bush v. Gore case in 2000, when the court did agree to the release of same-day audio tapes of the argument. C-SPAN said that it would provide the live feed to any others in the media who wanted it. C-SPAN pointed to the fact that the court was planning five-and-a-half hours of argument as a sign of the significance of the case, and pitched the request as a "supplement" to the court's regular end-of-the-week audiocast release of arguments and as a further reflection of the importance of the case.

Sony Considers Internet Rival to Cable TV

Apparently, Sony is considering launching an Internet-based alternative to cable-TV service, the latest threat to cable and satellite operators that now dominate pay television.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has approached several big media companies that own TV channels to negotiate the rights to offer TV channels over the Web to U.S. consumers. Sony is proposing to beam the channels over Internet connections to Sony-made devices including PlayStation gaming consoles, television sets and Blu-ray player.

The first gigabit Wi-Fi chip for consumer devices is here

Quantenna, a startup building chips for sending massive data over Wi-Fi, has built the first gigabit chip for Wi-Fi networks and devices.

Quantenna, which first got started delivering chips to boost in-home Wi-Fi to meet the demands of high-bandwidth applications, said that its latest chip is available now for select customers for use in routers, home gateways and even consumer gadgets. Products containing the chips could hit the market in 2012. The chips use a combination of four antennas on sending and receiving radios to deliver gigabit speeds under the planned 802.11ac standard. By using 4×4 MIMO and an ability to cover both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequencies, Quantenna says it can deliver 2 Gbps, which is awesomely fast, but pretty useless for most homes and devices today considering our home broadband speeds are much slower.

Benton

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