October 2013

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

COURT SAYS POLICE NEED A WARRANT TO TRACK VEHICLES VIA GPS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
A federal appeals court has ruled that the government must obtain a warrant to attach a GPS unit to a car. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held in a two-to-one decision that attaching a GPS device to a car without a warrant is an "unreasonable search," and therefore unconstitutional. The ruling extends a recent Supreme Court ruling, which found that GPS tracking constituted a search but did not rule on whether it's reasonable to conduct such a search without a warrant. American Civil Liberties Union Staff Attorney Catherine Crump, who had argued before the panel, called the decision "a victory for all Americans because it ensures that the police cannot use powerful tracking technology without court supervision and a good reason to believe it will turn up evidence of wrongdoing."
benton.org/node/163761 | Washington Post | The Hill
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AP CHIEF: US PRESS ATTACKS WILL 'COMFORT AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES'
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Colleen Slevin]
Governments that try to force citizens to decide between a free press and national security create a "false choice" that weakens democracy, and journalists must fight increasing government overreach that has had a chilling effect on efforts to hold leaders accountable, the president and CEO of The Associated Press said. Gary Pruitt, President and CEO of the Associated Press, told the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association that the US Justice Department's secret seizure of records of thousands of telephone calls to and from AP reporters in 2012 is one of the most blatant violations of the First Amendment the 167-year-old news cooperative has ever encountered. The Justice Department action involving the AP resonated far beyond the US, including Latin America, where journalists for decades have fought to exercise press freedoms under authoritarian regimes, Pruitt said. "The actions by the Department of Justice could not have been more tailor-made to comfort authoritarian regimes who want to suppress the news media. 'The United States does it too,' they can say," Pruitt said.
benton.org/node/163704 | Associated Press
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JOURNALISTS USING SNOWDEN'S DOCUMENTS ARE PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT. BUT WHAT ABOUT SNOWDEN?
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Peter Scheer]
[Commentary] I am often asked whether Edward Snowden's leaking of classified documents about National Security Agency surveillance programs is protected by the first amendment. My answer is no, his handing over of classified information to reporters at The Guardian, the Washington Post and the New York Times enjoys no constitutional protection or privilege. Snowden is a source who leaks information, not a journalist who receives leaks. The difference is crucial: in the transaction between source and journalist, constitutional protections extend only to the latter. Specifically, journalists cannot be barred by a court injunction from publishing a story based on leaked information. And post-publication, too, journalists have special protections: first amendment principles, doubts about the application of federal statutes, and a tradition of prosecutorial forbearance -- all these combine to create huge obstacles to the bringing of criminal charges against journalists for reporting on leaked, classified information. This double-standard -- exposing government leakers to punishment while insulating the journalists who publicize their leaks -- may seem unfair, arbitrary, even offensive, but the double-standard is nonetheless necessary.
[Peter Scheer is Executive Director of the First Amendment Coalition]
benton.org/node/163735 | Huffington Post
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NEW LEAKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Stunning new details continue to emerge from Edward Snowden’s leaks about the vast electronic data mining carried out by the National Security Agency, setting off one diplomatic aftershock after another. Reports based on Snowden’s information have alleged American eavesdropping on France, Germany, Britain, Brazil, Mexico, European Union offices and European diplomatic missions. More revelations are likely. The Obama Administration’s response has been that the United States seeks to gather foreign intelligence as other nations do. But the very scale of America’s clandestine electronic operations appears to be undercutting America’s “soft power” — its ability to influence global affairs through example and moral leadership. The fact is that most nations practice electronic surveillance and that citizens everywhere surrender personal data voluntarily to digital services and social networks. That is why free countries must place stern limits on the security institutions allowed to function in the shadows.
benton.org/node/163792 | New York Times
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INTERNET/TELECOM

NIST RELEASES PRELIMINARY CYBERSECURITY FRAMEWORK, WILL SEEK COMMENTS
[SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology, AUTHOR: Press Release]
The Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework to help critical infrastructure owners and operators reduce cybersecurity risks in industries such as power generation, transportation and telecommunications. NIST will soon open a 45-day public comment period on the Preliminary Framework and plans to release the official framework in February 2014, as called for in Executive Order 13636 -- Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. The Preliminary Framework outlines a set of steps that can be customized to various sectors and adapted by both large and small organizations while providing a consistent approach to cybersecurity. It offers a common language and mechanism for organizations to determine and describe their current cybersecurity posture, as well as their target state for cybersecurity. The framework will help them to identify and prioritize opportunities for improvement within the context of risk management and to assess progress toward their goals.
benton.org/node/163745 | National Institute of Standards and Technology
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PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE, AT&T WEIGH IN WITH HILL ON IP TRIALS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In prepared testimony for a House Communications Subcommittee on the transition from traditional voice to IP-delivered telecommunications, Public Knowledge SVP Harold Feld says the fab five values policymakers should make touchstones for the Internet protocol (IP) transition are: 1) Service to All Americans, 2) Interconnection and Competition, 3) Consumer Protection, 4) Reliability, and 5) Public Safety. AT&T obviously sees it differently, but it gives Feld credit too. In his prepared testimony AT&T SVP James Cicconi complimented Feld on "identifying the key consumer protections needed for a successful IP transition. We may end up differing on details," he said, "but their framework is sound. Clearly the fundamental principles of universal connectivity, interconnection, consumer protection, reliability and public safety are hallmarks of our Nation’s commitment to communications and cannot be lost in this process."
benton.org/node/163753 | Multichannel News
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HOW FREEDOMPOP IS SEPARATING VOICE FROM DATA ON ITS NEW VOIP PHONE SERVICE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
FreedomPop launched one of the country’s first all-Internet protocol (IP) mobile services. Consequently, it has to deal with an interesting problem facing all future IP mobile operators: If all your traffic is running over the same data connection, how do you distinguish between voice, SMS and internet traffic so you can charge accordingly? The company is solving that problem by working with Telespree, which provides a cloud-based monetization service for carriers. Basically, Telespree is picking apart all of the CDMA and WiMAX (and eventually LTE) data traffic that traverses FreedomPop’s phones. That way it knows not to count a VoIP call or an IP SMS message against a customer bucket of megabytes. That all seems rather simple, but teasing voice out of the data stream is just a first step. FreedomPop is a ‘freemium’ operator: it’s giving away 500 MB, 200 voice minutes and 500 text messages to its customers for free, but it plans to offer value-added services on top of those core communications apps. FreedomPop will eventually start letting its customers trade and earn minutes and texts like they can data, FreedomPop CEO and co-founder Stephen Stokols confirmed. But the more interesting idea is how it could combine those freemium and currency models using Telespree’s technology. Eventually, the big operators will be able to offer similar kinds of enhanced communications services when they launch their voice-over-LTE networks. But it’s doubtful they will adopt the same kind of pricing models that carriers like FreedomPop is experimenting with. FreedomPop and competitors like TextNow and Scratch Wireless are mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) meaning they’re only renting time on another carrier’s network (in all three cases Sprint’s). To them, mobile megabytes and minutes are the expenses of doing business. For the network operators, selling data and voice plans is core to their business strategies.
benton.org/node/163743 | GigaOm
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NEW BITAG REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group, AUTHOR: Press release]
Every link and router in the various networks that make up the Internet has a limit on its capacity to handle data. When aggregate user demand at any point in time exceeds the capacity of a link or router, the result is congestion, which can degrade performance. Choices made by a variety parties, including Internet service providers (ISPs), application service providers (ASPs), and content delivery networks (CDNs) may alleviate or exacerbate congestion on both their own networks and others carrying their traffic.
The report describes how network resources are allocated on a short time scale in order to, among other objectives, manage congestion on the network, and how such congestion management impacts applications and users. The report also recommends best practices regarding congestion management and network resource management. Among other things, the report recommends that:
ISPs and ASPs should disclose information about their user- or application- based network management and congestion management practices for Internet services in a manner that is readily accessible to the general public.
Network operators should use accepted industry "Best Practices," standardized practices, or seek industry review of practices.
When engaging in a congestion management practice that could have a detrimental impact on the traffic of certain users or certain applications, the practice should be designed to minimize that impact.
If application-based congestion management practices are used, those based on a user’s expressed preferences are preferred over those that are not.
If application-based criteria are used by a network operator, they should be tested prior to deployment and on an ongoing basis.
ASPs and CDNs should implement efficient and adaptive network resource management practices.
benton.org/node/163706 | Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group
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THREE STEPS TO BETTER BROADBAND
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephen Shankland]
The number of communities that wanted Google Fiber proved vastly larger than the number of places -- three -- where Google thus far has actually chosen to build its gigabit broadband network. But for the have-nots out there, Google Access project leader Kevin Lo offered some advice at the Broadband World Forum for attracting Google Fiber or some other ultrafast broadband provider. It's not about tax breaks, he said, but rather relatively mundane measures that cities and towns can take:
First, grant new Internet providers access to power poles, ducts, and cable conduits. Once Google has figured out what it needs to use, "We agree to a fair-market price so we can get up to that space," Lo said.
Second, provide good maps -- not just to locate power poles and conduit channels, but also water mains and gas lines that complicate installations. "We've been surprised how big a problem this is for a lot of our cities," Lo said.
Last, expedite construction permits. "When we build, we are submitting literally tens of thousands of permits. We work closely with the city to expedite that process. These are the things that have been consuming our teams' time," Lo said.
benton.org/node/163710 | C-Net|News.com
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BROADBAND IN RURAL CALIFORNIA
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: James Temple]
Google’s nonprofit arm announced that it has contributed $2 million to the De Novo Group, a Berkeley organization working to deliver affordable broadband Internet access to rural communities, starting in Northern California. The broad mission of the organization’s “Celerate” project is “to get the next billion people online,” said Yahel Ben-David, president of De Novo. Or at least onto faster and cheaper Internet connections, which studies link to improved economic development and educational achievement. The project, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and Stanford University researchers, is now seeking applications from interested communities in the region. The service won’t be free, but should be cheaper than and superior to existing options, Ben-David said. The ideal candidate communities in Northern California would be:
located within 250 miles of Berkeley to accommodate visits by Berkeley researchers;
include at least 20 households in reasonable proximity of each other;
located beyond the reach of conventional broadband offerings;
and able to demonstrate community excitement and buy-in.
benton.org/node/163778 | San Francisco Chronicle
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AT&T RATES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ryan Knutson]
AT&T has moved to effectively raise the price on some of its dedicated data and voice lines for businesses, prompting complaints from groups representing cellphone carriers to ATM owners which say the market is uncompetitive. The telecom giant notified customers earlier this month that it would no longer offer extended contracts -- and the discounts that come with them -- to companies using these high-capacity connections, known as "special access lines." Sprint and other telecommunications companies that buy the connections claimed the move was anticompetitive, and complained to the Federal Communications Commission. Once the FCC receives official notice of the change from AT&T, the agency will have 15 days to respond or the changes will automatically take effect. The agency can still suspend the changes after they have taken effect. Rising prices of high capacity connections could impact a broad array of businesses from financial institutions, manufacturers and retailers that use these lines to connect ATMs, gas pumps and warehouse inventories.
benton.org/node/163790 | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

IN-STORE TRACKING TECH COMPANIES AGREE TO CUSTOMER PRIVACY CODE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
A group of in-store tracking technology companies have agreed to a code of conduct that will let customers know when they’re being tracked and how to opt-out. Stores using the technologies of the companies that signed onto the code will have to post “conspicuous signage” that customers are being tracked and must provide “a central opt-out site for consumers,” according to the statement announcing the code of conduct. Additionally, the tech companies that have signed onto the code face limitations on how the data is used and for how long it is retained. Under the code, the companies must have customer consent to collect personal data. Jules Polonetsky, executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum, said that the code is “comprehensive,” one that provides standards that require companies “to de-identify data, to provide consumers with effective choices to not be tracked and to explain to consumers the purposes for which data is being used.”
benton.org/node/163749 | Hill, The
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PRIVACY MEETING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Members of Congress will meet with privacy advocates, a privacy researcher and an online advertising industry representative to talk about digital privacy on Oct 23. The meeting will be the second of ten meetings about online privacy held by the House Commerce Committee's Bipartisan Privacy Working Group, led by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The meeting will include Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America, Mercatus Center Senior Researcher Adam Theirer and Rachel Thomas, vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, which represents online advertisers. Theirer said he is going to discuss with the working group members “the benefits of data collection for the information economy and the provision of digital services.” Chester and Grant have both been vocal and critical members of stakeholder privacy efforts, including the recently-concluded Department of Commerce initiative to improve transparency around mobile data collection.
benton.org/node/163786 | Hill, The
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CONTENT

FACEBOOK VIDEO
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Brandon Bailey]
Facing a fierce public outcry after allowing a violent video to return, Facebook said that it had removed the posting. But the episode underscored the recurring difficulties that popular online sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube have in weighing whether to let users share potentially offensive or even horrifying material. "Every step along the way, Facebook is making a series of judgments about the appropriateness of content for its audience," said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. "There is no way for Facebook to make all of its users completely happy about its editorial choices." Website operators have confronted similar dilemmas since the dawn of the Internet. But while most Internet companies promote the Web as a forum for free speech, many have struggled with hosting offensive material, even after developing extensive policies and employing squadrons of content reviewers and lawyers to implement them.
benton.org/node/163782 | San Jose Mercury News | WSJ
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FACEBOOK AND FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac]
Facebook lifted a ban on a violent video circulating across its network, one in which a woman is beheaded. While the company immediately came under fire from child-protection groups and family online safety advocates, Facebook defended its stance with a familiar argument: “Facebook has long been a place where people turn to share their experiences, particularly when they’re connected to controversial events on the ground, such as human rights abuses, acts of terrorism and other violent events. People share videos of these events on Facebook to condemn them.” In positioning itself as a bullhorn for free speech, Facebook is beginning to look and sound a lot like Twitter. On the one hand, this is a benevolent act. If Facebook wants to promote its platform as a protected one for free speech, that’s a win for activists. But it is hardly entirely altruistic. Facebook also wants to be seen as the place to go for discussions about less-controversial topics, such as live media events or TV shows. It is adjacent to those discussions that Facebook can sell ad space to brands, just as Twitter does now.
benton.org/node/163719 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP

TV OWNERSHIP CONSOLIDATION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Keach Hagey]
The $10.2 billion in television station deals that have taken place this year make 2013 the fourth-biggest deals year on record -- and it’s only October. Ten companies now control 55% of all local TV advertising revenues, according to a new report from Free Press. Some of the drivers of this M&A boom include the rapid rise in the “retransmission consent” fees that broadcasters can demand from pay-TV outfits, and the Citizens United-enriched flood of political advertising money every couple years. But Free Press argues that the Federal Communications Commission’s policies toward “sidecar” agreements are also a factor. The group argues that, by allowing TV station owners to run multiple stations in a market that it doesn’t own, “FCC policies are a major factor driving the latest wave of consolidation.”
benton.org/node/163717 | Wall Street Journal
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LIFESTYLES

WHAT ARE WE NOT DOING WHEN WE'RE ONLINE
[SOURCE: Technology Policy Institute, AUTHOR: Press Release]
Online leisure crowds out other, offline activities such as offline leisure, work, and sleep, finds Scott Wallsten in “What Are We Not Doing When We're Online?” released as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Wallsten, TPI Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research, analyzed the 2003 -- 2011 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey to determine how online leisure is substituting for other leisure activities, to what extent and how online activities are evolving. Wallsten's research reveals that time spent online and the share of the population engaged in online activities has been increasing steadily. He finds that, on the margin, each minute of online leisure time is correlated with 0.29 fewer minutes on all other types of leisure, with about half of that coming from time spent watching TV and video, 0.05 minutes from (offline) socializing, 0.04 minutes from relaxing and thinking, and the balance from time spent at parties, attending cultural events, and listening to the radio. Each minute of online leisure is also correlated with 0.27 fewer minutes working, 0.12 fewer minutes sleeping, 0.10 fewer minutes in travel time, 0.07 fewer minutes in household activities, and 0.06 fewer minutes in educational activities.
benton.org/node/163739 | Technology Policy Institute | Technology Policy Institute
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GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE

OBAMACARE WEBSITE FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS HAS PROBLEMS, TOO
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Clara Ritger]
Lost in the hubbub surrounding the malfunctioning HealthCare.gov is another missed deadline and closed door for millions of Americans seeking health insurance: Cuidado¬DeSalud.gov. The Spanish-language site still does not allow consumers to enroll for exchange coverage, a delay that was previously estimated by Administration officials to last until mid-October of 2013. A spokeswoman from the Health and Human Services Department declined to comment on when consumers will be able to sign up for health insurance on CuidadoDeSalud.gov and whether the additional delay is related to the malfunctions on the English language site, HealthCare.gov. Roughly 10.2 million Latinos in the United States do not have health insurance, according to HHS data.
benton.org/node/163696 | National Journal
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EDUCATION

PROTECTING STUDENT DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Singer]
Sen Edward Markey (D-MA), who is a staunch advocate of children’s privacy, is investigating whether the data collection and analysis practices of the growing education technology industry, a market estimated at $8 billion, are outstripping federal rules governing the sharing of students’ personal information. Sen Markey sent a letter to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, about how K-12 schools are outsourcing management and assessment of student data, including intimate details like disabilities, to technology vendors. The letter cited an article in The New York Times about concerns over the proliferation of student data to companies. “By collecting detailed personal information about students’ test results and learning abilities, educators may find better ways to educate their students,” Sen Markey wrote in the letter. “However, putting the sensitive information of students in private hands raises a number of important questions about the privacy rights of parents and their children.”
benton.org/node/163722 | New York Times
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POLICYMAKERS
The candidate from Facebook: Silicon Valley’s march on Washington

RO KHANNA
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Andrew Leonard]
A little more than a year away from an election that will decide which of two Democrats will represent California’s 17th Congressional District, Ro Khanna lags far behind the incumbent, Mike Honda, in the polls. But thanks to his well-heeled friends and supporters in the tech community, Khanna has far out-raised the veteran lawmaker. His treasure chest is big enough to afford hiring a fleet of top campaign operatives from Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Only 36 years old, the intellectual property lawyer has already served a stint in Obama’s Commerce Department and written a book about how to boost manufacturing in the United States. He’s someone to take seriously. The 17th includes the heart of Silicon Valley.
benton.org/node/163780 | Salon
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LOBBYING

NSA AND SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other tech powerhouses have mounted a quiet new lobbying push around government surveillance laws as they seek to influence potential congressional reforms to controversial National Security Agency programs. Thrust into the spotlight as a result of Edward Snowden’s leaks, these industry leaders historically haven’t voiced loud support for restraining the NSA’s legal authorities to collect data. But many tech firms’ third-quarter lobbying reports, filed this week and totaling millions of dollars, demonstrate Silicon Valley is devoting more of its bandwidth to an emerging surveillance debate that could affect many companies’ bottom lines. Even Washington-wary Apple reported lobbying between the months of July and September on topics “related to government requests for data.” Never before has Apple explicitly talked up that topic here in the Beltway, according to a review of its previous filings. The company spent almost $1 million on lobbying during the third quarter — its most in D.C. to date — to lobby on a range of policy issues.
benton.org/node/163788 | Politico
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… AND THEN THERE’S THIS

SILICON VALLEY’S ULTIMATE EXIT
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Nick Statt]
Balaji Srinivasan opened his Y Combinator startup school talk with a joke: Is the US the Microsoft of nations? The question was received warmly by the crowd of more than 1,700 and did in fact have a logical conclusion: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, were exactly what Bill Gates feared when he said in 1998 that two people in a garage working on something new was Microsoft's biggest threat. What ties those two seams together? The idea of techno-utopian spaces -- new countries even -- that could operate beyond the bureaucracy and inefficiency of government. It's a decision that hinges on exiting the current system, as Srinivasan terms it from the realm of political science, instead of using one's voice to reform from within, the very way Page and Brin decided to found their search giant instead of seek out ways in which the then-current tech titans could solve new problems. Calling his radical-sounding proposal "Silicon Valley's Ultimate Exit," Srinivasan thinks that these limitless spaces, popularly postulated by Page at this year's Google I/O, are already being created, thanks to technology and a desire to exit. Ultimately, the Stanford lecturer and co-founder of Counsyl, a genetics startup, thinks Silicon Valley could lead the charge in exiting en masse because, eventually, "they are going to try and blame the economy on Silicon Valley."
benton.org/node/163708 | C-Net|News.com
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October 2013

US intelligence chief denies reports that the NSA collected 70 million French call records

The Real Privacy Problem

ITIF Calls on Congress to Focus Telecom Policy on Broadband Innovation

October 23, 2013 (Cybersecurity Framework Released)