November 2012

Don’t Ask? Internet Still Tells

There are the questions you ask friends, family and close confidants. And then there are the questions you ask the Internet. Search engines have long provided clues to the topics people look up. But now sites like Google and Bing are showing the precise questions that are most frequently asked, giving everyone a chance to peer virtually over one another’s shoulders at private curiosities. And they are revealing interesting patterns.

Frequently asked questions include: When will the world end? Is Neil Armstrong Muslim? Was George Washington gay? The questions come from a feature that Google calls “autocomplete” and Microsoft calls “autosuggest.” These anticipate what you are likely to ask based on questions that other people have asked. Simply type a question starting with a word like “is” or “was,” and search engines will start filling in the rest. People who study online behavior also say the autocomplete feature reveals broader patterns, including indications that the questions people ask of search engines often veer into the sensitive and politically incorrect.

Justice Department Expands Hunt for Data on Cellphones

Cellphones seem to be increasingly attractive to the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show. Agencies affiliated with the department used more than 37,600 court orders in 2011 to gather cellphone data, a sharp increase from previous years. They were almost equally divided between “pen register” data, which captures outgoing phone numbers, and “trap and trace” orders, which refer to incoming phone numbers, which means one phone could have two separate orders associated with it. The total number has roughly doubled since 2007, when cellphone communications were more limited.

By law, the data can be obtained without a search warrant establishing probable cause, though the authorities do need to tell a court that it is relevant to an investigation. To get a wiretap that allows authorities to actually listen in on the contents of a call has higher legal barriers; law enforcement officials have to convince an impartial judge of probable cause. The lower legal threshold allows law enforcement agencies to capture crucial information, including the time and date of calls and their length, helping law enforcement officials deduce important associations among callers.

Senate to Reconsider Warrantless Cell Phone Searches

Over the past few years, police have realized that cell phone data -- such as text messages and GPS coordinates -- are useful tools in criminal cases, and a privacy battle regarding such information has ensued. In some cases, courts allowed warrantless cell phone searches; in other instances, courts threw out police-obtained cell phone data, citing the Fourth Amendment. But a blanket ruling on how courts interpret the use of such data in their cases could occur on Nov. 29, when a Senate committee will consider limited changes to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and European officials seized 132 websites for allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise in a coordinated crackdown timed to coincide with the holiday shopping season. It is the third straight year that the government has seized websites on "Cyber Monday" — the marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving, when many online retailers offer steep discounts and promotions.

FBI uses Twitter, social media to look for securities fraud

The Federal Bureau of Investigation sees social media as a potential breeding ground for securities fraud, and has agents scouring Twitter and Facebook for tips, according to two top agents overseeing a long-running investigation into insider trading in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry. April Brooks, a special agent in charge of the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and David Chaves, a supervisory agent, said it is hard to predict the next wave of securities fraud, but they add that it will have a lot to do with advances in technology and social media.

Local Passes National in Time-Shifted Viewing

TVB released an analysis of time-shifted viewing for the first six weeks of the 2012-13 primetime broadcast season. The analysis revealed that time-shifted viewing in the nation’s top local markets is outpacing the national average by 26%.

Across the 25 Local People Meter (LPM) markets, an average of 18 programs per market over-indexed the national average of live-plus-same day time-shifted viewing. However, some markets consistently over-delivered including Chicago (44 programs), Dallas (44 programs), San Francisco (29 programs), Los Angeles (38 programs) and Houston (37 programs). While industry observers have largely focused on the amount of national time-shifted viewing that occurs in the three days after programs first air, according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research, a substantial 43% of all time-shifted viewing is occurring on the same day the programming originally aired, TVB says. TVB examined the live-plus-same day audience trends over the first six weeks of the season and said there were several significant insights of relevance to local broadcast TV.

Data isn’t just the new oil, it’s the new money

In the fight about royalties from streaming media services like Pandora, Popular cellist Zoë Keating says she’s willing to give up the money in exchange for data. It’s an idea that’s gaining traction elsewhere, too, as more companies are paying consumers for their truly valuable data.

No, a legal notice won’t protect you from Facebook – so stop posting them

An old hoax has resurfaced that suggests Facebook users can tell the company what to do by posting a legal notice on their profile. Alas, it’s not true — your interactions with the company are governed by law and licenses, not your wishes.

Sprint launches 11 new LTE markets; maintains small-city focus

When Sprint finally does launch LTE in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Washington, D.C., customers in those cities won’t be complaining about lack of regional coverage. Sprint is keeping with its strategy of launching 4G in small cities, towns and bedroom communities while saving its big metro markets for the end of the year. Sprint continued its steady rollout of LTE mobile broadband service in 11 new markets, turning on networks in:

Anderson, Ind.
Clarke County, Va./Jefferson County, W.Va.
Harrisburg/Carlisle/Hershey, Pa.
Hagerstown, Md./Martinsburg, W.Va.
Harrisonburg, Va.
Muncie, Ind.
Peabody, Mass.
Salina, Kan.
Shenandoah County, Va.
South Bend/Mishawaka, Ind.
Winchester, Va.

Local Governments Strive for Broadband Independence

A small town nestled away in southern Minnesota doesn’t sound like the description of a high-tech battleground between local government and Internet service providers. But that’s reality in Winthrop (MN) (pop 1,400), where the city’s fight to light up a municipally-owned broadband network is the latest skirmish in a national war for access to high-speed Internet connectivity. For Winthrop, the idea to launch a community broadband network was hatched four years ago at a city council meeting. While the city has made progress, obstacles have cropped up, preventing the project from breaking ground. Problems range from private provider opposition to municipal partners dropping out of the project. The snail’s pace isn’t surprising, however. To date, only 150 communities have created city-wide cable or fiber-to-the-home networks in the U.S., according to Christopher Mitchell, an expert on community broadband networks and director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative, a nonprofit economic and community development consulting group.

Benton

Search