September 2013

Tech giants ask 21 countries to release surveillance data

A group of privacy advocates, human rights groups and tech companies has asked 21 countries to release information on surveillance requests and allow the companies receiving those requests to do the same.

The Global Network Initiative – which includes Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo – said in letters to the members of the Freedom Online Coalition that governments should release and allow tech companies to release information on the law enforcement and national security requests for electronic communication the firms receive, the group said. The Freedom Online Coalition, a group of 21 countries working to advance Internet freedom, includes the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which have received heavy criticism over their national surveillance programs.

New FCC Head Must Reclaim Authority Over Telecom

[Commentary] As the Federal Communications Commission gets a new chairman, the agency faces historic resistance from the companies it is meant to regulate. The giant companies that sell access to the Internet are working on multiple fronts to ensure that no regulator has any real authority over them. It’s imperative that Tom Wheeler, nominated to be FCC chairman, reclaim the FCC’s authority over telecommunications. Otherwise, Americans may lose the high-quality, reasonably priced and ubiquitous communications capacity that they have enjoyed since electronic communications began.

Smart and appropriate regulation would bolster our country’s competitiveness and help unleash the productive potential of the middle class. The existing network-access providers (mainly, Verizon and AT&T for wireless and Comcast and Time Warner Cable for wires) just keep repeating their mantra that everything is fine in America. That’s simply not true, as any mayor interested in ensuring reasonably priced fiber connectivity for local businesses can attest. The U.S. lacks any plan to upgrade from cable to faster fiber-optic connections, and there is no competition among providers to drive technology upgrades. Nor do the providers have any incentive to treat fairly any interconnecting networks being used by their content-level competitors (again, think of Netflix). Instead, as Verizon’s lawyer told the court last week, they’re planning to exact payments from these networks for the privilege of reaching their subscribers on the equivalent basis as Verizon’s own services. What’s at stake is more than just how the FCC treats AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Comcast: It’s the country’s competitive future. It’s encouraging that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate seem willing to come together to approve the new FCC commissioners. FCC Chair Nominee Tom Wheeler and the administration must now rise to the regulatory challenges ahead.

[Susan Crawford, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute]

Nielsen to Add Data for Mobile TV Viewing

Nielsen will announce plans to augment its TV ratings data with information on viewing on tablets and smartphones, meeting a major demand of media companies that say they aren't getting credit in the current system for viewing on mobile devices. Nielsen also plans to roll out a planned Twitter-related ratings service on Sept 30. It will measure the audience that sees tweets about TV shows to help gauge their popularity. Early findings showed that for every one tweet about a TV show, roughly 50 people see it, the company says.

Sinclair emerges as a major broadcasting player

CEO David Smith’s aggressive buying binge in recent months has shown that the unshackling of Sinclair is well underway, a development that pleases investors but has regulators and media watchdogs on alert.

In the last 2.5 years, Sinclair nearly doubled its portfolio of TV stations to 108 from 58, becoming the largest broadcaster in terms of number of stations. It will own and operate 149 stations when its pending deals are completed. Sinclair's singularly torrid pace of growth has fueled debate about enduring questions on concentration of media ownership and fresh attempts by federal regulators to scale back broadcasters' ambitions. Sinclair's reach beyond its traditional domain of small-to-midsize markets is also triggering a particular set of worries for media critics, who recall Smith's conservative politics seeping into his stations' coverage in the past. Sinclair executives didn't respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

Chairman Rockefeller presses Zuckerberg on privacy

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to do a better job protecting the privacy of his site's users during a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

"I emphasized with Mark Zuckerberg the utmost importance of strong consumer protections and how this must be a priority for his company. Hundreds of millions of consumers have already completely integrated their lives with Facebook, so I believe Facebook has an obligation to implement policies that safeguard their customers’ information," said Chairman Rockefeller. "Mr. Zuckerberg has an opportunity [to] chart a path for companies where they balance profits with what's right for their users." Chairman Rockefeller is pushing legislation that would force Web companies to allow their users to opt out of online tracking.

Sprint, T-Mobile join Verizon in snub of Canada airwaves

Sprint and T-Mobile US confirmed they will not participate in Canada's upcoming auction of prized wireless spectrum, joining larger rival Verizon Communications in shunning the market.

The decision by the big US wireless operators helped lift shares of BCE, Rogers Communications, and Telus, which together control about 90 percent of the Canadian mobile market. The entry of a foreign giant like Verizon would have sliced into the profits of the Canadian players and forced higher bids at the spectrum auction, analysts said.

China to invest $323 billion to expand broadband to all-minister

China plans to invest 2 trillion yuan ($323 billion) to improve its broadband infrastructure by 2020 with the aim of taking the nearly entire population online, a vice minister said.

The government is trying to improve fixed-line and wireless connectivity throughout China, home to the largest number of mobile phone users in the world but where only 45 percent of the population has Internet access. China's investment in broadband could benefit global network equipment makers such as Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, as well as home-grown players like Huawei Technologies and ZTE. Shang Bing, a vice minister at the Ministry of Information and Industry, said the government aimed to boost the average broadband speed in Chinese cities to 20 Mbps by 2015, which is less than what Internet users in Hong Kong and Singapore currently enjoy. In rural China, where Internet penetration is very low, broadband speeds would hit 4 Mbps by 2015, he said.

Analysis: Canadian cable TV's 'a la carte' menu begins to take hold

A transformation in how some Canadian cable TV companies sell channels to consumers might be a sign of things to come in the much bigger US market. With "a la carte" pricing, cable companies are offering Canadians an alternative to "take-it-or-leave-it" bundles that effectively force viewers there - and in the United States - to pay for channels that they do not watch in order to get access to those they do. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission pushed the change when the regulator "strongly encouraged" the introduction of more-flexible packages two years ago. And Canadian consumers seem to like what has been happening.

NAB to FCC: Don't Take Our BAS

The National Association of Broadcasters has told the Federal Communications Commission that a proposal to take Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) spectrum for auctioning for mobile wireless could compromise broadcasters' ability to deliver crucial local news and information, like coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Broadcasters use that spectrum for electronic newsgatherers (ENG) including helicopter shots, and for studio-to-transmitter links that deliver a signal to rural and remote areas. The NAB took issue with CTIA’s proposal to repurpose 15 MHz of that BAS spectrum. NAB says there is 25 MHz elsewhere that can be used, and points out that the BAS allocation was already reduced by almost 30%, from 120 to 85 MHz in the digital TV transition. CTIA asked the FCC to consider whether broadcasters needed 12 MHz for each BAS channel, and points to the rise of alternatives like Skype and LET and Wi-Fi for backhaul of ENG signals from remote sites. "While each of these new technology alternatives may not fully replace the existing capabilities for broadcasters in the 2025-2110 MHz band, CTIA believes that the Commission should independently review whether these new options mitigate the overall demand for all 85 megahertz for BAS," CTIA said in its comments.

Why privacy settlements like Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” lawsuit aren’t working

The non-profit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation revealed that it will turn down its share of a $20 million settlement intended to compensate Facebook users whose photos were misused for advertising. The Foundation, one of 14 non-profit groups selected to receive money by Facebook and class action lawyers, declined the award on the ground that it doesn’t work on issues related to consumer privacy.

The news is just the latest example of how pricey lawsuits filed in the name of consumers’ privacy often do little to educate people about how companies like Facebook and Google actually use customer data. Instead, the legal process appears to be perpetuating a cottage industry in “privacy panic” that leaves ordinary Internet users excluded and discouraged. Several non-profits who received settlements from Facebook expressed a lack of familiarity with the deal, including details about the amount they were to receive or how they had been selected in the first place. In all of these cases, the class action system appeared, on the surface, to be doing its job: punishing companies through a legal process more powerful than what a single citizen could muster on his or her own.

Benton

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