February 2012

DHS defends social media monitoring program

The Homeland Security Department monitors social media sites, blogs and online comment threads to gather "situational awareness" about threats and emergencies, but it doesn't pull identifying information about average citizens out of those comments unless it's a "life or death situation," officials told a House panel.

The hearing of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence follows news that an agency contractor mined Facebook, Twitter and the comments sections of online news articles in 2009 to gauge Standish, Mich., residents' thoughts about a short-lived proposal to move Guantanamo Bay prisoners to an area prison. The contract with General Dynamics was uncovered after the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an online privacy advocacy group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent lawsuit. Current analysis produced by the National Operations Center, where the social media monitoring program is housed, "focus[es] on what's being reported, not who's reporting it," said DHS Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan. Those reports never identify people's names or other personally identifying information unless the analysts believe someone's life might be in danger or if the person being referred to is a public official, she said. When then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in Tucson in January 2011, for instance, reports identified the congresswoman by name, Callahan said.

Hollywood to make over message for DC

Hollywood is casting about for a new script to explain the entertainment industry’s side of the online piracy story to the American public — and lawmakers — in light of the surprise ending dealt the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act in Congress last month.

Industry lobbies and entertainment companies are mulling over new Web-based advocacy campaigns and possibly seeking outside consultants to help them recast the policy debate: They see it as a multibillion-dollar heist of movies, music and the work of artists by Internet bandits. “We can’t throw any old message out there. We need to be smart about it — where we put it, how we say it, who says it,” said one entertainment industry executive. The executive said that lawmakers who supported SOPA and PIPA want “a more robust PR effort from the motion picture industry not only in Washington but outside of Washington to get people to understand why they should care about this issue as consumers.”

Kansas State Universal Service Fund on Legislative Chopping Block

Are state Universal Service funds becoming an endangered species? In the past couple of weeks, JSICA has reported on state legislation to slash funds in Colorado and Georgia; and now it appears that the Kansas fund is facing threats from the state House of Representatives.

Obama’s White Whale

As part of a project code-named Narwhal, President Obama’s reelection team is working to link once completely separate repositories of information so that every fact gathered about a voter is available to every arm of the campaign.

Such information-sharing would allow the person who crafts a provocative email about contraception to send it only to women with whom canvassers have personally discussed reproductive views or whom data-mining targeters have pinpointed as likely to be friendly to Obama’s views on the issue. From a technological perspective, the 2012 campaign will look to many voters much the same as 2008 did. There will not be a major innovation that seems to herald a new era in electioneering, like 1996’s debut of candidate Web pages or their use in fundraising four years later; like online organizing for campaign events in 2004 or the subsequent emergence of social media as a mass-communication tool in 2008. This year’s looming innovations in campaign mechanics will be imperceptible to the electorate, and the engineers at Obama’s Chicago headquarters racing to complete Narwhal in time for the fall election season may be at work at one of the most important. If successful, Narwhal would fuse the multiple identities of the engaged citizen—the online activist, the offline voter, the donor, the volunteer—into a single, unified political profile.

FCC Seeks Comment on Terminating Some Proceedings

The Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (“CGB”) seeks comment on whether certain docketed FCC proceedings should be terminated as dormant.

FCC rules direct the CGB to periodically review all open dockets and, in consultation with the responsible Bureaus or Offices, to identify those dockets that appear to be candidates for termination. Those dockets could be ones in which no further action is required or contemplated as well as those in which no pleadings or other documents have been filed for several years. The FCC specified that proceedings in which petitions addressing the merits are pending should not be terminated, absent the parties’ consent. The termination of a dormant proceeding also includes dismissal as moot of any pending petition, motion, or other request for relief that is procedural in nature or otherwise does not address the merits of the proceeding.

FTC Report Raises Privacy Questions About Mobile Applications for Children

The Federal Trade Commission issued a staff report showing the results of a survey of mobile apps for children. The survey shows that neither the app stores nor the app developers provide the information parents need to determine what data is being collected from their children, how it is being shared, or who will have access to it. The report notes that mobile apps can capture a broad range of user information from a mobile device automatically, including the user's precise geolocation, phone number, list of contacts, call logs, unique identifiers, and other information stored on the device. At the same time, "the report highlights the lack of information available to parents prior to downloading mobile apps for their children, and calls on industry to provide greater transparency about their data practices."

The report recommends:

All members of the "kids app ecosystem" – the stores, developers and third parties providing services – should play an active role in providing key information to parents.
App developers should provide data practices information in simple and short disclosures. They also should disclose whether the app connects with social media, and whether it contains ads. Third parties that collect data also should disclose their privacy practices.
App stores also should take responsibility for ensuring that parents have basic information. "As gatekeepers of the app marketplace, the app stores should do more." The report notes that the stores provide architecture for sharing pricing and category data, and should be able to provide a way for developers to provide information about their data collection and sharing practices.

American Families See Tablets as Playmate, Teacher and Babysitter

The rise of gadgets is ushering in a new generation of kids who are growing up digital.

According to a Nielsen survey of adults with children under 12 in tablet-owning households, in Q4 2011 seven out of every 10 children in tablet-owning households used a tablet computer – a nine percent increase compared to Q3 2011. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said children play downloaded games on their tablets and 57 percent said children used tablets to access educational apps. The portable gadget also keeps kids quiet while families are on-the-go: 55 percent and 41 percent of parents report that their children used tablets for entertainment while traveling or in restaurants, respectively. This can also include watching TV shows and movies, which 43 percent of children often do. Communicating with friends and family is a less popular function on tablets– only 15 percent of kids engage in this activity.

FCC treading lightly after LightSquared debacle

The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to yank its support for satellite firm LightSquared all but ends that company’s effort to launch mobile services, analysts say. Now comes the hangover.

FCC officials say they still have faith that satellite technology can be used to create wireless networks rivaling those of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. But analysts say the agency will step more carefully this time, after being burned by congressional investigations, feuds with other federal agencies and two years of work wasted on LightSquared. And, the analysts said, the LightSquared controversy will bring extra scrutiny, especially from GOP lawmakers, to future efforts to use satellites to satiate America’s voracious appetite for smartphones and network-connected tablets. The agency is expected to move deliberately on its next pet project — helping Dish Network get a mobile network running using its satellites, analysts said.

Where we're at with broadband stimulus and rural Internet access

[Commentary] How far along is the national broadband stimulus program?

Since 2009, over $3,525,706,687 in stimulus grants have been disbursed to 258 applicants in two rounds of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) funding, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). More than 18,000 miles of new broadband networks have been built out as of November 2011, the Commerce Dept. reported. The money has been used for more than 229 projects so far--beyond building infrastructure, stimulus has funded the creation and improvement of public computer centers, state government development, and sustainable broadband adoption initiatives. But a look at the NTIA's broadband availability maps show that the United States still has a way to go before every citizen has access to acceptable high-speed, scalable broadband.

There are large hurdles to clear. Rural communities are still way behind the speed curve, with 17 states reporting a 15 to 25 percent difference in speed availability between their urban and rural areas. (And that's at the 3 Mbps/768 Kbps federal standard.) That is beginning to change, as stimulus awardees including Windstream in its Oklahoma region put their grants into action and break ground on projects to improve broadband access in selected rural areas. Low income consumers are gaining more access to broadband technologies thanks to both increased public computer availability and "essentials"-type subscriber programs offered by providers like Comcast and CenturyLink.

Department of Transportation Proposes ‘Distraction’ Guidelines for Automakers

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the first-ever federally proposed guidelines to encourage automobile manufacturers to limit the distraction risk for in-vehicle electronic devices. The proposed voluntary guidelines would apply to communications, entertainment, information gathering and navigation devices or functions that are not required to safely operate the vehicle.

Issued by the Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the guidelines would establish specific recommended criteria for electronic devices installed in vehicles at the time they are manufactured that require visual or manual operation by drivers. The announcement of the guidelines comes just days after President Obama’s FY 2013 budget request, which includes $330 million over six years for distracted driving programs that increase awareness of the issue and encourage stakeholders to take action. Geared toward light vehicles (cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, minivans, and other vehicles rated at not more than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight), the guidelines proposed today are the first in a series of guidance documents NHTSA plans to issue to address sources of distraction that require use of the hands and/or diversion of the eyes from the primary task of driving. In particular, the Phase I proposed guidelines recommend criteria that manufacturers can use to ensure the systems or devices they provide in their vehicles are less likely to distract the driver with tasks not directly relevant to safely operating the vehicle, or cause undue distraction by engaging the driver’s eyes or hands for more than a very limited duration while driving. Electronic warning system functions such as forward-collision or lane departure alerts would not be subject to the proposed guidelines, since they are intended to warn a driver of a potential crash and are not considered distracting devices.

The proposed Phase I distraction guidelines include recommendations to:

Reduce complexity and task length required by the device;
Limit device operation to one hand only (leaving the other hand to remain on the steering wheel to control the vehicle);
Limit individual off-road glances required for device operation to no more than two seconds in duration;
Limit unnecessary visual information in the driver’s field of view;
Limit the amount of manual inputs required for device operation.

The proposed guidelines would also recommend the disabling of the following operations by in-vehicle electronic devices while driving, unless the devices are intended for use by passengers and cannot reasonably be accessed or seen by the driver, or unless the vehicle is stopped and the transmission shift lever is in park.

Visual-manual text messaging;
Visual-manual internet browsing;
Visual-manual social media browsing;
Visual-manual navigation system destination entry by address;
Visual-manual 10-digit phone dialing;
Displaying to the driver more than 30 characters of text unrelated to the driving task.

Benton

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