April 2013

IRS denies searching emails without warrant

The head of the Internal Revenue Service denied that his agency searches people's e-mails without a warrant.

"The short answer is we are not taking that position," Steven Miller, the IRS acting commissioner, said in response to questioning from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) during a hearing. Miller said that for criminal investigations, his agency obtains a search warrant before requesting the contents of emails from an Internet service provider. He said investigators do not request email content information from service providers for civil investigations.

National security officials to brief House members on cybersecurity

Top national security officials will participate in a briefing for House members on cybersecurity April 16. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander are slated to attend the briefing, which comes as the House is in the midst of voting on a package of cybersecurity-focused bills this week, according to a House aide.

It's unclear whether the administration officials will brief House members on information regarding the bombings that ripped through the Boston Marathon on April 15. The House will begin consideration of anchor bill in the cybersecurity legislative package, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), on April 17. CISPA is designed to make it easier for industry and the government to share data about malicious source code and other cyber threats with one another in real time so firms can thwart cyberattacks. The bill has drawn criticism from privacy and civil liberties advocates, as well as the White House. They argue that it does not include sufficient protections to safeguard people's personal information online and prevent that data from being shared with the military.

Rep Schiff Tweaks Personal Info-Sharing Amendment to CISPA

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has amended a proposed amendment to the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to make it clear that industry can use automated processes to remove personally identifiable information prior to sharing cyberthreat info with each other and government. That came in submitting the amendment to the Rules Committee, which is setting the rules for House floor debate April 17 and 18 on CISPA. Schiff tried unsuccessfully to get the amendment adopted in markup of the bill last year, which is why he tweaked the amendment to clarify that the information could still be shared in real time via automatic processes. Republicans have been concerned that the requirement of removing PII before sharing could slow sharing when time is of the essence. Rep Schiff was one of a quartet of Democratic legislators who said that without that and other changes to the Republican-backed bill, they could not support it.

New York Times Leads Pulitzers as InsideClimate Wins First

The New York Times led the Pulitzer Prizes with awards in four categories, including investigative reporting, while InsideClimate News won for the first time for its coverage of regulation of oil pipelines. The New York Times also was awarded for explanatory reporting, international reporting and feature writing. InsideClimate News, based in Brooklyn, New York, was given the prize for national reporting. Javier Manzano, a freelance photographer, won the prize for feature photography for an image of two Syrian rebel soldiers. The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, won in the public service category for its investigation of reckless speeding by police officers. InsideClimate, a non-profit, online news organization, won for its reporting on the “flawed regulation” of the nation’s oil pipeline, according to the Pulitzer committee. This is the fourth time a digital-only news organization has won journalism’s most esteemed prize.

The Modern Tool in Terror Investigations: Your Phone

In the chaotic minutes and hours following the Boston Marathon attack yesterday, Cheryl Fiandaca of the Boston Police Department made an unusual request. Fiandaca, the police department's social media director, issued an official request for anyone with video of the finish line to contact Boston Police. The Federal Bureau of Investigation will be handling the Boston attack, but the Boston Police request to the public still stands.

Sony ISP launches world's fastest home Internet, 2Gbps

A Sony-backed ISP in Japan has launched a 2Gbps Internet service, which it said is the world's fastest for home use.

So-net Entertainment began offering its "Nuro" fiber-based service on Monday to homes, apartments, and small businesses in Tokyo and six surrounding prefectures. Nuro will cost AY=4,980 ($51) per month on a two-year contract, plus a AY=52,500 installation fee that it is currently offering for free for those that apply online. The upload speed is 1Gbps. The company said the service includes rental of an ONU (optical network unit) designed to handle the high speeds. ONU devices are commonly used in homes and business to convert fiber to broadband Internet. Individual users of the service are unlikely to see 2Gbps speeds on their devices, as it exceeds the capacity of most consumer network adaptors. The Japanese government has strongly backed fiber connections to private residences, and the country is now among the world leaders.

Boston blasts show two sides of social media

Twitter users reacted fast to the explosions that ripped through the Boston Marathon Monday, but the incident also revealed how social media can only be so reliable in such situations. Twitter spread news of the blasts quickly and was a useful communications tool for public authorities such as the Boston police and the marathon organizers. But information on social media sites can also be questionable or just plain inaccurate, noted Greg Sterling, senior analyst with Opus Research.

"It cuts both ways," Sterling said. "It allows you to get the information out more quickly, but it can also fan hysteria." The Boston Police Department's Twitter log showed a positive side of social media. It was updated minute by minute in the aftermath of the bombings, often with instructions about which areas to avoid, or information about where the most police officers might be stationed. There was also misinformation, however. A report was circulated quickly on Twitter that police had shut down cellphone service in Boston to prevent detonation of further blasts, though it ultimately turned out to be inaccurate, according to network operators.

Google search manipulation starves some websites of traffic

Google's placement of its own flight-finding service in search results is resulting in lower click-through rates for companies that have not bought advertising, according to a study by Harvard University academics. The study provides data for how Google's placement of its own services amid "organic" search results may hurt competitors, which is the focus of an ongoing antitrust case between Google and the European Union.

How paid and non-paid search results are displayed has a powerful sway over consumers, the study found. Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and Zhenyu Lai, a Harvard doctoral candidate, looked at when Google began inserting its own Flight Search feature, launched in December 2011, into search results. They found that Google chose to display Flight Search depending on a user's search terms. When Flight Search was displayed, it takes a top position in the search results, pushing lower down non-paid search results. The result was an 85 percent increase in click-through rates -- a key measure for advertisers -- for paid advertisements. Non-paid, algorithmically generated search results for competing travel agencies dropped 65 percent.

The Internet’s Ongoing Gender Gap

Although the Internet seems ubiquitous, for many people in the developing world it is barely a reality—and women are left behind at greater rates than men. An extensive report from Intel and Dalberg Global Development Advisors, “Women and the Web,” quantifies the Internet gender gap, explains some factors contributing to it, and proposes ways to tackle it.

The report estimates “that 21 percent of women and girls in developing countries have access to the Internet, while 27 percent of men have access. This represents 600 million women and girls online—200 million fewer than men and boys.” Because of the spread of the Internet, an additional 450 million women and girls will likely become connected in the next few years, but the report’s authors believe that with the right interventions, an additional 150 million women could get connected. One of the report’s most valuable contributions is its work on the non-technological factors preventing women from using the Internet. In much of the developing world, basic access to the Internet is a significant problem—which is why developments like undersea cables and less expensive smartphones are particularly exciting. However, social factors that stop women from using technology at the same rate as men are an additional barrier.

America Doesn’t Need Google Fiber Everywhere — But We Do Need Its Buzz

[Commentary] It is time to fix the pitifully slow, expensive Internet access in the United States: It is ridiculous that 19 million Americans can’t subscribe to high-speed Internet access because they live in areas that private companies believe are too expensive to serve. It’s even more ridiculous that one of the most technologically savvy countries in the world can’t offer reasonable prices compared to other places.

We used to say that the Internet allows everyone to be a publisher; now, with equal upload to download capacity over gigabit connections reaching homes through Google Fiber, that will actually be true in Austin. But I don’t want Google serving the whole country, because we still need policies that lower the barriers to entry for competitors. Without competition the incumbents won’t invest in offering better service. Yet … there is something very valuable about the news that Google Fiber is coming to Austin. It makes clear that America’s current backward status when it comes to high-speed internet access isn’t inevitable. It makes companies like AT&T want to act (sort of). And most importantly, it makes people get why high-speed access matters. This is a different phase, not an incremental improvement. The difference between the standard Internet access that shapes our imagination and a fiber-to-the-home connection is as great as the difference between no electricity and an electrified life. But only if we see this difference, only if we understand what’s possible, can we change our expectations. And that’s the most important thing about the Google Fiber efforts.

[Crawford is a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.]

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