October 2013

Can Silicon Valley save the Obamacare site?

High-profile companies like Google, Oracle and Red Hat are donating their engineering talent to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to the Administration's call for a "tech surge" that would fix the embattled HealthCare.gov website.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that Google's Michael Dickerson, a site reliability engineer who's on temporary leave, will be aiding QSSI, one of the initial contractors for HealthCare.gov. Meanwhile, a former Presidential Innovation Fellow named Greg Gershman has signed on with CGI, the Canadian company widely said to be responsible for the botched project. Fixing HealthCare.gov could be these engineers' biggest project yet.

Tech companies urge lawmakers to reform NSA programs

Facebook, Google, Apple and three other leading technology companies called for substantial reforms to the US government’s surveillance programs, which have drawn new scrutiny in the aftermath of revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The letter, sent to top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, endorses greater transparency in surveillance programs, long a goal for tech companies that must comply with government data requests from around the world. Yet it also goes further, urging US lawmakers to enact reforms that would “include substantial enhancements to privacy protections and appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms for those programs.” It specifically “applauds” a bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) that would end the “bulk” collection of the communications records of millions of Americans and create a privacy advocate to represent civil liberties concerns before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. “We urge the Administration to work with Congress in addressing these critical reforms that would provide much needed transparency and help rebuild the trust of Internet users around the world,” the letter said.

Comcast is donating heavily to defeat the mayor who is bringing gigabit fiber to Seattle

One of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn's big policy initiatives has been expanding the quality and quantity of high-speed Internet access throughout the city. A public-private partnership plans to offer higher speeds at lower prices than most broadband providers currently offer. And incumbent providers, particularly Comcast, have invested heavily in defeating Mayor McGinn in his mayoral election. While Comcast denies there is any connection between Mayor McGinn's broadband policies and their donations, the company has given thousands of dollars to political action committees that have, in turn, given heavily to anti-McGinn groups.

Mayor McGinn's major opponent, state Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle), has committed to honoring the city's existing contracts for a 14-neighborhood pilot project, but has shown limited enthusiasm about Mayor McGinn's plans to expand the network in the future. So the election could determine whether Seattle residents have new options for high-speed broadband service, or will have to make do with the slower services already offered by incumbents like Comcast.

White House Plans A Single FOIA Portal Across Government

The White House plans to launch a single online portal where journalists, researchers and other citizens can file Freedom of Information Act requests, according to an early draft of commitments to the international Open Government Partnership.

A single FOIA portal could significantly reduce the time FOIA requesters spend managing requests that cross multiple agencies. It may also make it easier for agencies to forward requests within the government and to publicize responsive documents so FOIA officers don’t lose time digging for the same document twice. The government-wide portal could be based on FOIA Online, a year-old system that tracks FOIA requests for the Commerce Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, though the White House doesn’t mention the system by name. FOIA Online is the only multi-agency online FOIA portal in government so far.

Radio Isn’t Going Away

[Commentary] Scarborough USA Plus data shows radio has actually increased its reach of adults 18-54, 25-54 and 18-34 over the past five years. Radio accounts for more than 90 percent of almost any demographic segment of the consumer market every week. And many are surprised to discover that radio is the leading source of reach among media entertainment. More than 95 percent of the people who used Pandora in the past month also listened to broadcast radio in the past week. USA Touchpoints also shows that while consumers have shifted some of their audio entertainment time, it has been away from CDs and iPods, not radio. The number of radio listeners has continued to grow as digital audio has grown.

[Mary Beth Garber is Head of Radio Analysis and Insights, Katz Radio Group]

AT&T Said to Explore Vodafone Takeover as Soon as Next Year

AT&T executives are laying the groundwork internally for a potential takeover of Vodafone Group next year, mapping out a strategy for a complex deal with Europe’s largest mobile carrier, people familiar with the situation said. While the companies haven’t entered formal negotiations, AT&T, the largest US phone company, is intensifying work on which Vodafone assets it would retain after a deal and who could buy others, the people said, declining to be identified discussing private deliberations. AT&T, which remains interested in UK carrier EE as an alternative target, is also formulating a strategy for Vodafone’s operations in Europe, where mobile broadband adoption has lagged the US, the people said. Combined, Vodafone and AT&T would be a globe-spanning telecommunications player with a market capitalization exceeding $250 billion and large-scale operations in the US and across Europe. With more than 500 million wireless subscribers worldwide, the company would be able to challenge Google and Apple when negotiating handset subsidies and wringing profit out of nascent technologies such as mobile advertising.

Senate panel OKs modest surveillance reforms

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved a set of modest surveillance reforms in an effort supporters of the measure hope will head off other bids to effectively shut down the telephone call-tracking program revealed by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The intelligence panel voted 11-4 to approve its reform package at a closed meeting that followed two other closed markup sessions earlier this week. The text of the committee bill was not immediately released, nor were the identities of those who voted for and against the measure. However, a summary released by the panel largely tracks with the outlines Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had given previously of her proposed reforms. Feinstein’s measure would largely convert court-imposed limits on the call-tracking program into statutory requirements. Some new limits would be added, like a requirement that the justification for every query of the database be provided after the fact to the federal court which oversees the program. In addition, a five-year limit on the retention of data would be imposed by law, with records older than three years accessible only with the approval of the attorney general.

IRS warns of telephone tax scam involving fake caller IDs

The Internal Revenue Service warned about a growing tax scam in which fraudsters display an IRS phone number on the intended victim's caller ID and demand money. Particularly targeting recent U.S. immigrants, the scammer typically tells the targets over the phone that they owe money to the IRS and demands payment via a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer, the IRS said. The victim's caller ID displays an IRS toll-free number in a deception known as caller ID spoofing. For added effect, the scammers often add background noise on the call that sounds like an official call center. They may also send follow-up emails from a bogus IRS address.

The Stakes Are High for Facebook’s Next Big Ad Product

Even after back-to-back quarterly wins, the heat is still on for Facebook to knock its next ad product out of the park.

Take a look at the current market performance. After delivering another quarter of stellar earnings numbers, Facebook CFO David Ebersman said something that made investors twitch: Facebook won’t “significantly increase” the number of ads it is sticking into users’ News Feeds -- the current biggest driver of Facebook’s money machine. The big bet for Facebook instead: Improving the quality of its existing ads. That’s sort of a no-brainer. Make the ad look as “native” as possible, and it’ll probably perform better. It’s all the rage these days with competitors like Twitter.

Google Aims for the Next Billion Users With Android KitKat

The new version of Android’s mobile operating system, called KitKat, has a more immersive design, a cleaner font, quicker ways to call local businesses, and integrated tools for adding location pins and emoji into messages. But the real appeal of the operating system is that it can run on lower-end devices, as it requires only 512 megabytes of RAM.

“Smartphone penetration is less than five percent in emerging markets,” said Android head Sundar Pichai while announcing KitKat and its companion flagship phone, the Nexus 5. “For 2014, our goal is, how do we reach the next billion people.” Google is starting to do well in countries like Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, India and Mexico, Pichai said, where business is tripling on an annual basis. But, in those countries, phone makers are selling new Android phones with Android Gingerbread, a.k.a. version 2.3, which launched in 2011.

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