October 2013

Privacy Fears Grow as Cities Increase Surveillance

Federal grants of $7 million awarded to Oakland (CA) were meant largely to help thwart terror attacks at its bustling port. But instead, the money is going to a police initiative that will collect and analyze reams of surveillance data from around town -- from gunshot-detection sensors in the barrios of East Oakland to license plate readers mounted on police cars patrolling the city’s upscale hills. The new system, scheduled to begin next summer, is the latest example of how cities are compiling and processing large amounts of information, known as big data, for routine law enforcement. And the system underscores how technology has enabled the tracking of people in many aspects of life.

Netflix Pursues Cable-TV Deals

Apparently, Netflix is in talks with several US pay-television providers including Comcast and Suddenlink Communications to make its online video service available as an app on their set-top boxes.

A deal would mark the online video service's first such tie-up with a US cable provider and would come after a similar agreement it recently announced with UK cable operator Virgin Media. The talks are in early stages and no deal is imminent. A hangup in the talks with at least two operators is that Netflix is insisting that they also take on its special technology designed to improve the delivery of its streaming video, people familiar with the matter say. The technology is part of its Open Connect program and consists of special servers Netflix wants to connect directly into broadband providers' networks. Netflix believes the technology is critical to make sure its service provides the best quality to viewers, the people say. So far, Internet providers Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon Communications have declined to use the technology, concerned that such an arrangement could lead other online services to ask for special treatment, the people familiar with the matter say. The Internet providers argue their broadband networks are fully capable of handling Netflix traffic, the people say.

Broadcasters Ask Supreme Court to Intervene Over Aereo

Major TV broadcasters petitioned the Supreme Court over Aereo, a streaming-video startup backed by media mogul Barry Diller.

The broadcasters argue that Aereo, which streams local TV signals over the Web without their permission, violates their copyrights. The broadcasters, that include Walt Disney 's ABC, Comcast’s NBC, CBS and 21st Century Fox, are appealing a ruling earlier this year by the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied their request to shut down the fee-based service. The circuit court's decision "is already transforming the industry and threatening the very fundamentals of broadcast television," the broadcasters wrote in the petition. "We will respond, as appropriate, in due course," an Aereo spokeswoman said. "The longer Aereo is left unchecked, the more it can roll out its service," said David Wittenstein, head of the media and information technology practice at law firm Dow Lohnes. "If Aereo gets a lot of customers in a lot of places, it begins to be harder to shut it down." Cablevision said the petition is a "brazen attempt … to go after the legal underpinning of all cloud-based services," which amounts to a "willful attempt to stifle innovation." "If Aereo ends up prevailing, it will serve the broadcasters right," the company said.

Facebook privacy: Users should check these settings as new changes roll out

Facebook users may be wary after hearing that the social network is following up on a promise to cut a privacy setting that kept user names out of the social network’s graph search. Here’s a quick guide to what changes are coming and which settings to review as they hit users’ accounts. Facebook is trying to encourage people to control their privacy on an item-by-item basis. So, whenever and however you post, you should be checking to see if what you’re putting up is for public view or just for friends or specific lists of friends. Also, consider turning on Timeline approval, which shows you what your friends may be posting about your location or whom you’re with. You can ask them to remove your name from those posts.

Are Obama’s new cybersecurity standards a form of privacy regulation in disguise?

While the National Security Agency has been working to gather data about Americans' communications, other branches of government have been working to develop new rules to promote online privacy and security. Among them is the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

With the private sector's input, NIST has been putting together an obscure but important proposal to improve the nation's resilience against malicious hackers. Buried in the back of it is a series of recommendations that, if approved, might pave the way for stronger government oversight of businesses when it comes to their use of personal information. They include suggestions such as figuring out what exactly a company knows about its employees and its customers; whether its handling of the information poses a security risk; and how to treat personal data in the event of an online attack. These ideas are based on a common set of privacy principles that don't have the force of law. But according to Stewart Baker, the NSA's one-time top lawyer and former Bush administration official, the NIST guidelines could eventually turn into more enforceable regulations.

Sen Wyden is trying to tell us something about the opinion justifying the phone records program

If the public and the media should learn one thing from the revelations from former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, it's to pay very careful attention to what Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) says. So if he hints that there's something worth reading in the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court opinion justifying the NSA's bulk collection of domestic phone records, that should serve as a bat signal to privacy advocates.

A report from Carol Leonnig and Ellen Nakashima shows he is doing just that: "The original legal interpretation that said that the Patriot Act could be used to collect Americans’ records in bulk should never have been kept secret and should be declassified and released," Sen. Ron Wyden said. "This collection has been ongoing for years and the public should be able to compare the legal interpretation under which it was originally authorized with more recent documents."

DVRs help erase decline in TV ratings

TV viewers' stalling tactics signal a brighter ratings picture for the first week of the new season. Nielsen data for premiere week, out for the week ending Sept. 29, shows 12 network series gained at least 4 million viewers between their original air dates and seven days later, from delayed viewing on digital video recorders or on-demand features of cable systems.

During 2012’s premiere week, only two shows achieved that lift. Though growth among homes with DVRs has slowed -- 48% now have them -- delayed-viewing activity is "significantly higher" than 2012, says CBS research chief David Poltrack. The gains are steepest among older folks slower to adopt the technology. "The world has definitely changed." The gains in catch-up viewing spells relief for programmers, because it erases year-to-year declines for all four major networks based solely on same-day viewing.

Sen Markey calls for federal probe of Google privacy change

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) asked the Federal Trade Commission to review Google's plan to include users' names and photos in advertisements to people they know.

“Without users’ explicit permission, Google should not take consumer posts and turn them into product endorsements,” Sen Markey said. He sent a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, asking her to investigate whether the privacy change violates the terms of Google's 2011 settlement with the agency. "I urge the FTC to look into this new proposed change to determine whether Google violated the terms of its consent agreement, and I will continue to closely monitor this latest development,” Sen. Markey said.

Court: NSA can continue sweeping phone data collection

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has granted the National Security Agency (NSA) permission to continue its collection of records on all US phone calls.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced the court's approval in a statement. The court authorizes the program for only limited time periods and requires that the government submit new requests every several months for re-authorization. Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said the office decided to announce the court decision, which is usually kept secret, "in light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program."

Republicans: 'Obamaphone' program is 'everything that's wrong with Washington'

The government shutdown isn't slowing down Republican criticism of the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, a phone subsidy for the poor.

In letter to FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, forty-four House Republicans called Lifeline a "failed program" that symbolizes "everything that is wrong with Washington." "Sadly, Lifeline has become a prime example of how the culture of dependency is weakening America," they wrote. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said they would repeal the program if they could. The program is often derisively referred to as the "Obamaphone program," although it began long before President Barack Obama took office. Earlier in October 2013, the FCC proposed more than $14.4 million in fines against five companies for allegedly defrauding the program. The Republicans said they were surprised by the FCC crackdown but that it's too late to restore the public's trust in the program. They claimed that the program doesn't help the poor because the fees that fund it apply to all phone subscribers equally, regardless of their income. They asked Chairwoman Clyburn to consider requiring a $2 "co-pay" as a condition of participating in the program. They also asked for suggestions to cut the cost of the program in half by the end of 2014.

Benton

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