May 2012

The secret life of your cellphone

[Commentary] Concerned that mobile phone networks are becoming surveillance tools, the American Civil Liberties Union recently asked hundreds of local law enforcement agencies whether they've tracked people's movements through their cellphones. Most of those that responded said they had, usually obtaining the information from mobile phone companies without a warrant. The practice has become so routine, the ACLU found, that phone companies are sending out catalogs of monitoring services with detailed price lists to police agencies. The alarming findings should persuade Congress to clarify that the government can't follow someone electronically without showing probable cause and obtaining a warrant.

Greenwood, MS: One Man, Four Network Affiliates

Ranking No. 187 on the list of Nielsen DMAs, Greenwood-Greenville (MS) is not a large TV market, but for Charles Harker it's huge. He may soon control all four major network affiliates there.

Through Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, Harker already owns ABC affiliate WABG and NBC affiliate WNBD-LD and airs Fox programming on a WABG subchannel. Now, he has guaranteed a loan enabling his three adult children --Christopher, Jamie and Timothy -- to purchase the CBS affiliate, WXVT, from Saga Communications for $3 million. And, if the Federal Communications Commission approves the transfer, he intends to run the station under contract with his children.

Apple Must Face Lawsuit Over IPhone Data Collection Claims

Apple Inc. must face a lawsuit over claims it collected data from customers’ iPhones while they used applications approved by the company, a judge ruled.

US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, dismissed some of the claims in the case while allowing others to proceed to pretrial fact-finding. “I’m going to lift any stay of discovery, and discovery is going forward,” Judge Koh told lawyers representing Apple and customers who filed the complaint. Apple, through applications on iPhones, collected data on customers’ geographical locations even after users said they didn’t want to share the information, Scott Kamber, a lawyer representing customers, said in court.

Facebook's power play

Facebook’s business is built on fun and games and the childhood belief that sharing is caring, but there’s nothing cute about its lobbying operation: Its DC shop has been built for battle.

Founded in 2004, Facebook has put in place a sophisticated policy and political support network to wage war on potential privacy regulations — one of the greatest risks to the company’s post-IPO future. “They are responsive, engaged and big thinkers when it comes to Internet policy,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), chairwoman of a key House privacy panel. “Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg … clearly understand how important it is on Capitol Hill to be politically savvy, not just tech-savvy.”

ICANN: Sorry for domain name snafu

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has apologized to domain name applicants for problems arising from a computer glitch that has kept the application process closed for three weeks, according to its chief executive. Rod Beckstrom hopes the organization will reveal the domain applicants as well as potential new domains by the time he leaves the agency on July 1. Previously, ICANN had planned to unveil the potential new domains on April 30. “We apologized to all applicants for the delay,” Beckstrom said. “It’s not a comfortable situation for them.”

Passing the buck on location tracking

When it comes to police access to cellphone location data of suspects, Congress has left the courts holding the bag.

The high-stakes privacy debate over law enforcement tracking citizens using geolocational data is one Congress — despite a few bills and a hearing on the horizon — isn’t likely to resolve anytime soon. Lawmakers have left it to the courts, while the Supreme Court seemed to toss it back to the Hill recently. “It couldn’t be more up in the air than it is right now,” Susan Freiwald, a University of San Francisco law professor, said about the state of the law on smartphone tracking. “Practices just vary magistrate judge by magistrate judge and law enforcement agency by law enforcement agency.” These days, the same technology that ensures smartphone users can’t get lost on their way to a new restaurant allows the police to track their movements. If it sounds slightly Orwellian, that’s because it is.

Radio silence ahead

President Barack Obama could end up costing his hometown a pretty penny in the name of deficit reduction. Thanks to a last-minute move by Washington to take away the city's best radio frequencies and sell them to the highest bidder, Chicago will have to scrap its long-term plan to improve emergency communications for police, fire and other public safety personnel.

A new $23 million digital radio network for the Chicago Fire Department that was expected to last at least 20 years will have to be junked in a decade. If all of Chicago's transmitters and mobile equipment have to be replaced—as now appears likely—”the cost will skyrocket to the $200 million range,” the city says. Auction proceeds are supposed to cover the price of new equipment for government use, but they won't go toward equipment that will become prematurely obsolete. Making matters worse, Chicago and other big cities have no Plan B to improve their radio systems and enable first responders from different agencies to communicate with each other, a critical goal since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Admits ACTA Is Probably Dead

A European Commissioner for the first time said openly that the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is more or less dead in the water.

"We are now likely to be in a world without SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act] and without ACTA," Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a speech to bloggers and Web entrepreneurs in Berlin. ACTA is an international anti-piracy agreement that was signed by the European Union, the U.S. and nine other countries in January. It will enter into force after ratification by six of the signatory states, but so far none have done so. In the E.U., the deal must be approved by the European Parliament before it can become law.

Arab Spring Spurs Palestinian Journalists to Test Free Speech Limits

As Palestinian journalists and activists, imbued with the spirit of the Arab Spring, become more daring and enamored with the possibilities of new media and social networking sites, the primary instinct of some in the Palestinian Authority has been to crack down. Palestinian society, mostly conservative, has traditionally been served by a staid and obedient news media. But the communications revolution has shaken things up. Now Palestinian officials, journalists and bloggers are struggling to define the principles of freedom of expression and its boundaries, and to distinguish between legitimate criticism and defamation.

Evernote App Has Eye on China

US-based Evernote plans to install Chinese servers for its app that allows users to create and access notes across devices -- a move that would improve service in the country but could increase the vulnerability of user content to government surveillance.

China is "the hardest" market to crack, Evernote Chief Executive Phil Libin said in an interview , referring to Silicon Valley's unsuccessful efforts to tap the world's largest base of Internet users. But he wants to "do the hardest one first, jump into the deepest end of the pool first -- that's how we tend to operate." Evernote plans to start operations in China as soon as it receives regulatory approval, Mr. Libin said, which would mark the second country where the Mountain View, Calif., company has installed data centers. Filters that Beijing requires on Internet content from overseas servers tends to make the service slow and unstable in the country. But operating a data center in China comes with risks. Chinese authorities have requested personal information about Internet users from private companies and used such information against dissidents.

Benton

Search