December 2013

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CELLPHONE DATA SYPYING
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: John Kelly]
The National Security Agency isn't the only government entity secretly collecting data from people's cellphones. Local police are increasingly scooping it up, too. Armed with new technologies, including mobile devices that tap into cellphone data in real time, dozens of local and state police agencies are capturing information about thousands of cellphone users at a time, whether they are targets of an investigation or not, according to public records obtained by USA TODAY and Gannett newspapers and TV stations. The records, from more than 125 police agencies in 33 states, reveal:
About one in four law-enforcement agencies have used a tactic known as a "tower dump," which gives police data about the identity, activity and location of any phone that connects to the targeted cellphone towers over a set span of time, usually an hour or two. A typical dump covers multiple towers, and wireless providers, and can net information from thousands of phones.
At least 25 police departments own a Stingray, a suitcase-size device that costs as much as $400,000 and acts as a fake cell tower. The system, typically installed in a vehicle so it can be moved into any neighborhood, tricks all nearby phones into connecting to it and feeding data to police. In some states, the devices are available to any local police department via state surveillance units. The federal government funds most of the purchases, via anti-terror grants.
benton.org/node/169608 | USAToday
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NSA TRACKS PHONE LOCATIONS UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The National Security Agency uses its authority under a 1981 executive order signed by President Ronald Reagan to collect cellphone location data around the world, the agency said. Congress never authorized the program, but an NSA spokeswoman argued that the collection does not violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which outlines certain NSA powers. The NSA collects nearly five billion records every day on the locations of cellphones in other countries. The NSA issued a new statement providing more details about the program. It said the program is operated under Executive Order 12333, which was issued by President Reagan and governs surveillance in other countries. The NSA spokeswoman said the agency "tries to avoid" collecting Americans' cellphone location information. "Again, the Agency's EO 12333 collection is outward-facing. We are not intentionally acquiring domestic information through this capability," the spokeswoman said. She said that if the agency does incidentally collect the location information of an American, analysts apply "minimization procedures," and in some cases, destroy the records.
benton.org/node/169366 | Hill, The
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AGENCIES COLLECTED DATA ON AMERICANS’ CELLPHONE USE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies conducting criminal investigations collected data on cellphone activity thousands of times last year, with each request to a phone company yielding hundreds or thousands of phone numbers of innocent Americans along with those of potential suspects. Law enforcement made more than 9,000 requests last year for what are called “tower dumps,” information on all the calls that bounced off a cellphone tower within a certain period of time, usually two or more hours, a congressional inquiry has revealed. The little-known practice has raised concerns among federal judges, lawmakers and privacy advocates who question the harvesting of massive amounts of data on people suspected of no crime in order to try to locate a criminal. Data linked to specific cell towers can be used to track people’s movements. The inquiry, by Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), into law enforcement’s use of cellphone data comes amid growing scrutiny of the bulk collection of geolocation data overseas and of Americans’ phone records in the United States by the National Security Agency. Tower dumps raise in the law enforcement context some of the same concerns presented by the NSA’s mass collection of phone records without a warrant, when large amounts of data on law-abiding citizens are gathered to find clues about a small number of suspects, privacy advocates and some industry lawyers say. But unlike the NSA collection, which is bound by court-imposed rules on retention and use, the standards for obtaining tower data and the limits on its use by a plethora of agencies are inconsistent and unclear.
benton.org/node/169637 | Washington Post
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SEN MARKEY PLANS CELLPHONE PRIVACY LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
Cellphone carriers last year answered at least 1.1 million requests from law enforcement agencies seeking information on caller locations, text messages and other data for use in investigations, according to reports from the carriers. The cellphone carriers’ reports, which came in response to a congressional inquiry, underscored the law enforcement agencies’ strong reliance on wireless phone records. The carriers are shown to turn over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, subpoenas and other requests. Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) requested the reports from seven carriers -- including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile US. Sen Markey conducted a similar audit last year as a member of the House, seeking information from carriers about law enforcement requests for 2011. Sen Markey said he planned to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would provide stronger privacy protections for consumers, including the requirement of a warrant for police to get cellphone location information from a carrier as proof that it would help uncover evidence of a crime. “Congress needs to ensure that our laws keep up with technology, including how law enforcement handles and disposes of this sensitive mobile phone information,” Sen Markey said.
benton.org/node/169634 | New York Times
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SPIES DRAGNET REACHES GAMERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Mazzetti, Justin Elliott]
Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents. Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels. The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players, according to the documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Because militants often rely on features common to video games -- fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions -- American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers.
benton.org/node/169632 | New York Times | The Guardian
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TECH GIANTS CALL FOR LIMITS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt, Claire Cain Miller]
Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers’ data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama and Congress to set new limits on government surveillance. The companies, led by Google and Microsoft, presented a plan to regulate online spying and urged the United States to lead a worldwide effort to restrict it. They accompanied it with an open letter, in the form of full-page ads in national newspapers, including The New York Times, and a website detailing their concerns. It is the broadest and strongest effort by the companies, often archrivals, to speak with one voice to pressure the government. The tech industry, whose billionaire founders and executives are highly sought as political donors, forms a powerful interest group that is increasingly flexing its muscle in Washington. The political push by the technology companies opens a third front in their battle against government surveillance, which has escalated with recent revelations about government spying without the companies’ knowledge. The companies have also been making technical changes to try to thwart spying and have been waging a public-relations campaign to convince users that they are protecting their privacy.
benton.org/node/169630 | New York Times | WashPost | FT | Bloomberg
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PRESIDENT OBAMA PLANS NEW LIMITS ON NSA SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Josh Gerstein]
President Barack Obama said that he'll be reining in some of the snooping conducted by the National Security Agency, but he did not detail what new limits he plans to impose on the embattled spy organization. "I'll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA. And... to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence, " President Obama said. The President insisted that the NSA's work shows respect for the rights of Americans, but he conceded that its activities are often more intrusive when it comes to foreigners communicating overseas. "The NSA actually does a very good job about not engaging in domestic surveillance, not reading people's e-mails, not listening to the contents of their phone calls. Outside of our borders, the NSA's more aggressive. It's not constrained by laws," President Obama said. The President pointed to an outside panel he set up in August to look into how the government was collecting surveillance data in the era of 'big data.' The five-member group is set to deliver its final report to Obama by Dec 15.
benton.org/node/169370 | Politico
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AT&T: WE DON'T HAVE TO DISCLOSE NSA DEALINGS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Martha Mendoza]
AT&T, under fire for ongoing revelations that it shares and sells customers' communications records to the National Security Agency and other US intelligence offices, says it isn't required to disclose to shareholders what it does with customers' data. In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T said it protects customer information and complies with government requests for records "only to the extent required by law." AT&T's letter was a response to a shareholder revolt sparked on Nov 20 by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the ACLU of Northern California and others. The groups are demanding that AT&T and Verizon be more transparent about their dealings with the NSA. In the letter, AT&T said information about assisting foreign intelligence surveillance activities is almost certainly classified. The company said it should not have to address the issue at its annual shareholders meeting in the spring of 2014. Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director at the ACLU of Northern California said AT&T has overstepped its bounds. "It's outrageous that AT&T is trying to block the shareholder proposal," she said. "Customers have a right to know how often their private information is ending up in the government's hands."
benton.org/node/169596 | USAToday | Bloomberg | New York Times
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PRIVACY

CELLPHONE PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
Amid growing concern about the hot-button issue of cellphone privacy, state regulators are considering whether California needs stronger protections. At issue before the Public Utilities Commission is whether it's time to update the state's more than two-decade-old telephone privacy rules, developed at the dawn of the hand-held cellphone era. Consumer groups have urged the five-member commission to open an investigation. But the wireless industry, led by giant AT&T, is opposed to any changes. Commissioners, meanwhile, are divided on the question set for debate next month. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, a law professor who specializes in telecommunications, said it's time to consider whether changes are needed. "New forms of personal information and new capacities for tracking that information" were unforeseen when earlier laws and regulations were written, she said. In particular, Sandoval noted that wireless carriers now track a user's location and match it to demographic data.
benton.org/node/169610 | Los Angeles Times
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SHEDDING LIGHT ON WHAT YOUR APP IS UP TO: 3 LESSONS FOR DEVELOPERS
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Lesley Fair]
Goldenshores Technologies’ “Brightest Flashlight Free” is an incredibly popular Android app downloaded by tens of millions of consumers. But did those people know that when they used the app, it would transmit their precise location and unique device identifier to third parties, including ad networks? According to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, Goldenshores didn’t give people the straight story about how their information would be used and then compounded the problem by making them think they could exercise a choice about it -- a “choice” that proved ineffective. The lawsuit charges that by failing to adequately disclose those material facts to consumers, Goldenshores and Erik M. Geidl violated the FTC Act. The terms of the proposed settlement apply just to Goldenshores, but what can app developers take from the case?
Geolocation, geolocation, geolocation. If your app collects and shares sensitive information, it’s smart to explain what’s going on up front, using language consumers will understand. What's more, get people’s express approval before going forward.
Button, button. Who’s got the button? By featuring ACCEPT or REFUSE or similar buttons, you’re conveying to consumers they have a choice -- and that you’ll abide by it.
The best things in life are free. Many app developers adopt a business model that allows for the distribution of their apps for free. That can be great for consumers, of course, but it doesn’t change app developers' legal obligation to abide by well-established truth-in-advertising and privacy principles.
benton.org/node/169602 | Federal Trade Commission
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INTERNET/TELECOM

THE COLUMBUS COMPACT
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler returned to Ohio State University this week to deliver the first of what he promises to be a series of speeches that will articulate his regulatory philosophy. There is great symbolism in returning to his alma mater, he said, because “the dateline of my first speech sends a more powerful message than anything you’ll find in the transcript.” He wanted to stress, not just in his words, but in his presence, that the American people is the FCC’s constituency. “That how we connect determines how jobs are created and lives are lived. And that your FCC believes its mission is as integral to the prosperity of the Ohio Valley as Silicon Valley.” The Chairman characterizes himself as “the public’s advocate in the midst of an historic revolution.” So let’s pause to parse out what he sees as the FCC’s role in the revolution.
http://benton.org/node/169354
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FCC COMMISSIONER SPEAKS TO ALEC TASK FORCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai]
Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai spoke at a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Task Force on Communications and Technology. Commissioner Pai celebrated their common cause: fighting for the cherished principles of a vibrant free market, limited government, and federalism. “Perhaps nowhere are they more vital right now than in the communications and technology sector,” he said. He focused on the IP Transition -- the Internet’s is transformation of the nation’s telecommunications networks. He said “allowing new IP-enabled services to thrive free from undue intervention isn’t enough. Some heavy-handed rules currently apply to the old telephone services provided by incumbent local exchange carriers. Those rules saddle carriers with tariffs, rate regulation, required cross-subsidization, and other requirements inspired by 19th century railroad regulation.” He highlighted the century-old Kingsbury Commitment, a historic deal in which “the federal government essentially blessed a telephone monopoly in exchange for one company, one system, universal service.” In his remarks, Commissioner Pai recognized states as leaders in “clearing out this regulatory underbrush.” He also offered two ideas for what states should be doing now:
They should be proactive in reducing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment.
They should make it easier to use the Internet for innovative, over-the-top business models.
benton.org/node/169428 | Federal Communications Commission
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THIRTY PERCENT OF CONNECT AMERICA BROADBAND FUNDING IN LIMBO
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The fate of as much as 30 percent of money earmarked for five price cap carriers in the 2013 Connect America Fund program is in question, the Federal Communications revealed. The FCC has authorized only $255.7 million of the requested funding -- enough to serve 393,409 homes. The FCC received challenges for approximately 30 percent of 563,767 homes originally targeted. Challenges came from competitors who said they already provide broadband to the targeted homes. An FCC spokesman confirmed that the challenges were still pending, which means some of the funding originally earmarked could eventually be released to the requesting carriers.
benton.org/node/169356 | telecompetitor | Federal Communications Commission
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US TELECOM'S MCCORMICK: NET NEUTRALITY RULES HAVE HAD NO EFFECT
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
US Telecom President Walter McCormick says that he has seen no impact from the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules either on his members or on competition. In an interview for C-SPAN's The Communicators series, McCormick was asked whether he thought the DC Circuit would overturn the rules. He said he was not sure, but that in any event he thought the industry had, for a decade, been operating in "complete conformance" with the FCC's open Internet principles, including not blocking or degrading. He said that given the amount of competition today, "no company is going to change the terms of service for its consumers."
benton.org/node/169371 | Multichannel News
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COMMUNITY NETWORKS PROVIDE A PUBLIC SERVICE
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: Christopher Mitchell]
[Commentary] Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake recently spoke the plain truth: "You can't grow jobs with slow Internet." This simple statement is the best explanation for why Baltimore is examining how it can use existing city assets and smart investments in the near future to expand access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet access. It is also a slap across Comcast's face. The big cable and telephone companies have insisted for years that they already deliver the services residents and businesses need. But they also claim to offer reasonable prices that just happen to increase year after year with few customers having other options to choose from. Baltimore's reality is that Comcast does indeed offer speeds that are faster than many those in rural Maryland can access. But they are not even in the same league as cities like Chattanooga (TN), where every address in the community has access to the fastest speeds available anywhere in the nation, and at some of the lowest prices. There, as in hundreds of communities across the country, the local government built its own next-generation network. The overwhelming majority of community owned networks are doing exactly what they intended -- breaking even financially while providing a valuable public service. Big cable companies argue that these networks have failed if they aren't making big profits each year, a misunderstanding of public accounting. Community owned networks aim to break even, not make a profit.
benton.org/node/169367 | Baltimore Sun
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

THE PATH TO A SUCCESSFUL INCENTIVE AUCTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Since my arrival at the Commission, I have spent more time working on the Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction than any other single issue. There are several key ingredients to fulfilling our instructions from Congress and making the incentive auction a success. First and foremost, we absolutely must make fact-based policy decisions in an open and transparent manner. Beyond the policy issues, however, we must also exhaustively test the operating systems and the software necessary to conduct the world’s first-of-a kind incentive auction. This includes ensuring that such systems are user-friendly to both broadcasters and wireless carriers who will participate. I believe we can conduct a successful auction in the middle of 2015. To achieve that goal, there will be a number of important milestones along the way. The Task Force will provide more details about the timeline and milestones in a presentation at the January 2014 Commission meeting. This plan includes presenting policy recommendations in a proposed Report and Order for the Commission’s consideration in early 2014. The Commission would then vote on the R&O in the spring of 2014. Concurrent with determining the rules of the road for the auction, another important aspect of the project plan will include developing the actual procedures for how the auction will be conducted. In the second half of 2014 the Task Force plans to release an Auction Comment Public Notice and a Procedures Public Notice that will provide additional details and seek comment on how the specific parts of the auction will actually function.
benton.org/node/169373 | Federal Communications Commission | AT&T | WSJ
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DID T-MOBILE CHANGE THE WIRELESS INDUSTRY?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
When T-Mobile announced its new approach to pricing, chief executive John Legere said that the move would change the wireless industry. Shortly after, Sprint also introduced plans that separate the cost of a phone from the data. With AT&T now taking the same approach, has T-Mobile actually succeeded in changing the industry? Not so fast, said wireless industry analyst Jeff Kagan. While T-Mobile was certainly the first to move on this strategy, he said that framing AT&T’s move as a reaction probably gives the smaller carrier a bit too much credit. While T-Mobile was gaining subscribers, it was not eating into AT&T’s customer base heavily enough to prompt such a fast reaction. But, Kagan said, the fundamental change in these plans — separating the monthly cost of device and data — was a foreseeable change for the industry as smartphone growth in the United States slows. With fewer new smartphone subscribers, Kagan said, the major carriers have to work harder to keep customers from jumping ship to budget networks that may offer cheaper rates but fewer perks. More seasoned smartphone customers may decide, for example, that they’re happy to give up some coverage or call quality to save some money each month.
benton.org/node/169612 | Washington Post
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T-MOBILE’S SPECTRUM BOOST
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
T-Mobile has started rolling out higher-speed LTE service by tapping the airwaves it acquired as part of its MetroPCS acquisition. T-Mobile quietly turned on the faster service in parts of North Dallas. The higher speeds come by combining T-Mobile’s LTE spectrum with that originally held by MetroPCS. Combining the spectrum allows so-called 20-by-20 service, or double the amount of spectrum T-Mobile had been able to offer in most markets. T-Mobile plans to eventually offer the expanded LTE service in 90 percent of the top 25 U.S. markets, but timing depends on how quickly it can move around some of its existing network traffic. T-Mobile had touted the increased bandwidth as one of the benefits of the MetroPCS deal, though it hadn’t committed to offering 20-by-20 service until next year. The company expects to have 10-by-10 LTE service in 40 of the top 50 markets by the end of the year. With each of the major carriers now offering LTE networks in most big cities, a race is on not just to add cities but also to improve the speeds and capacity of the LTE networks in existing markets.
benton.org/node/169614 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION

FCC TARGETS SINCLAIR SIDECAR DEALS IN 3 MARKETS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Doug Halonen]
The Federal Communication Commission’s Media Bureau has alleged that the sidecar transactions that Sinclair Broadcast Group has proposed in three markets -- Charleston (SC), Birmingham (AL), and Harrisburg (PA) -- as part of its $985-million pending acquisition of Allbritton Communications would violate agency ownership rules. Under the deals at issue, Sinclair is proposing to take over the Allbritton ABC affiliates in those markets, spin off one of its existing stations in the markets to sidecar companies, in transactions that would give Sinclair some control over at least some operations of multiple TV stations in each market. In a letter to Sinclair, however, FCC Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman said the way the deals were structured, Sinclair would lose grandfathered protections that it previously had that allow it to operate more than one TV station in each market through local marketing agreements (LMAs). LMAs, which essentially allowed broadcasters to operate multiple stations in a market completely, are no longer legal. “In three of the markets -- Charleston, Birmingham and Harrisburg -- the proposed transactions would result in the elimination of the grandfathered status of certain local marketing agreements and thus cause the transactions to violate our local TV ownership rules,” Kreisman said in her letter. Kreisman also asked Sinclair to provide the agency with financial data showing that its sidecar partners in the three markets are genuinely running the programming operations of the stations.
benton.org/node/169588 | TVNewsCheck
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TV VIOLENCE RATINGS FAIL PARENTS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Lynn Elber]
Violent dramas on the broadcast networks carry milder parental cautions than cable shows like "The Walking Dead" but can equal them in graphic gore, a failure of the TV ratings system, a new study found. Scenes of stabbings, shootings, rape, decapitation and mutilation invariably received a TV-14 "parents strongly cautioned" rating on network TV, according to the Parents Television Council study. But similar fare on cable typically was given the most stringent label, TV-MA for mature audiences only, researchers for the media watchdog group found. "There are zero-point-zero series rated TV-MA on broadcast," said the media watchdog council President Tim Winter, despite programs that are awash in violent scenes. It is vital to examine the media's effect on children and real-world violence, Winter said, adding that he hopes his nonpartisan group's findings are part of a wide-ranging search for solutions. The study of 14 series during a four-week period found a 6 percent difference in the overall incidence of violence of all types on cable versus broadcast, with 1,482 violent acts on the cable programs and 1,392 on the network series.
benton.org/node/169626 | Associated Press
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CONTENT

CRITICS SAY THE INTERNET’S COPYRIGHT SYSTEM IS BROKEN: IT’S STILL BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
2013 marks the 15th anniversary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 law intended to encourage new forms of online expression while also giving content owners a way to protect their work. So far, the system has more or less worked: the online world is bursting with creative compositions while copyright owners have an easy way to take down unauthorized copies of the Hunger Games. Lately, though, DMCA’s great balancing act is under strain with an outburst of grumbling from all sides. Rights owners, for instance, grouse that infringers upload new files faster than they can issue notices to take them down. As copyright scholar Bruce Boyden notes in a new policy paper, the legal system was designed at a time when online transmission rates were relatively slow, meaning that rights owners had a chance to prevent uploaded works from reaching a large audience. But now: “A tool that was originally designed as an emergency stopgap measure, to be used in isolated instances, is now expected to manage infringement on a persistent, ubiquitous, and gargantuan scale.” All this had led Boynton to suggest that infringers are getting the upper hand and that the DMCA no longer works. But that’s only half the story. The other half is about copyright owners who, in an overzealous attempt to stamp out “piracy,” blow off rules that require them to use the DMCA takedown process with care and good faith.
benton.org/node/169361 | GigaOm
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NETFLIX'S WAR ON MASS CULTURE
[SOURCE: New Republic, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] Given all the faces you see glued to computers, tablets, and cell phones, you might think that people watch much less television than they used to. You would be wrong. According to Nielsen, Americans on average consume nearly five hours of TV every day, a number that has actually gone up since the 1990s. That works out to about 34 hours a week and almost 1,800 hours per year, more than the average French person spends working. The vast majority of that time is still spent in front of a standard television, watching live or prescheduled programming. That’s why, should Netflix and the other streamers even partially succeed at redefining the network as we know it, the effects will be so profound. In fact the company has embarked upon a venture more radical than any before it. With no standard daily cultural diet, we’ll tilt even more from a country united by shows like “I Love Lucy” or “Friends” toward one where people claim more personalized allegiances. The baby-boomer intellectuals who lament the erosion of shared values are right: Something will be lost in the transition. At a deeper level, a country already polarized by the echo chambers of ideologically driven journalism and social media will find itself with even less to agree on. However, community lost can be community gained, and as mass culture weakens, it creates openings for the cohorts that can otherwise get crowded out. Certainly, a culture where niche supplants mass hews closer to the original vision of the Americas, of a new continent truly open to whatever diverse and eccentric groups showed up. The United States was once, almost by definition, a place without a dominant national identity. As it revolutionizes television, Netflix is merely helping to return us to that past.
benton.org/node/169368 | New Republic
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EDUCATION

80 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS LACK SUFFICIENT INTERNET
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Kimberly Hefling]
Needed to keep a school building running these days: Water, electricity -- and broadband. Technology is changing the way students are taught -- and tested. But there's a catch: Most of it is occurring in schools that have rich connectivity to the Internet. Although nearly every school has Internet access, classrooms frequently are not connected or the connections are super slow. The hurdle is limited capacity inside schools to transmit data, or bandwidth. "It's the backbone. We have to actually think not just about the sustainability of the current traffic, we're talking about exploding traffic," said Raj Adusumilli, assistant superintendent for information services in the Arlington Public Schools in northern Virginia. "When schools and teachers have access to reliable Internet connections, students can discover new skills and ideas beyond the classroom," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, said in a statement. Funds from Big Tech philanthropy projects Start Up: Education and the Bill Gates Foundation are expected to be used to provide technical expertise to schools and use competition to help drive costs down. Today, about 80 percent of schools have Internet capabilities that are too slow or isolated to places like front offices and computer labs, said Richard Culatta, director of education technology at the Education Department. In some districts, particularly rural ones, cost is a huge factor in getting access to lines that would bring broadband into schools. To buy the equipment and install Wi-Fi costs an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 per school and to run fiber optics into the school can cost tens of thousands more per mile, said Evan Marwell, CEO of EducationSuperHighway.
benton.org/node/169372 | Associated Press
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HEALTH

PROGRESS ON ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
[SOURCE: HealthITBuzz, AUTHOR: Jacob Reider, Robert Tagalicod]
As of October 2013, 85 percent of eligible hospitals and more than six in 10 eligible professionals had received a Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive payment. Moreover, nine in 10 eligible hospitals and eight in 10 eligible professionals had taken the initial step of registering for the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs as of October 2013. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a new timeline for the implementation of meaningful use for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) proposed a more regular approach to update ONC’s certification regulations. Under the revised timeline, Stage 2 will be extended through 2016 and Stage 3 will begin in 2017 for those providers that have completed at least two years in Stage 2. The goal of this change is two-fold: first, to allow CMS and ONC to focus efforts on the successful implementation of the enhanced patient engagement, interoperability and health information exchange requirements in Stage 2; and second, to utilize data from Stage 2 participation to inform policy decisions for Stage 3. This new proposed timeline tracks ongoing conversations we at CMS and ONC have had with providers, consumers, health care associations, EHR developers, and other stakeholders in the health care industry. This timeline allows for enhanced program analysis of Stage 2 data to inform the improvements in care delivery outcomes in Stage 3.
benton.org/node/169600 | HealthITBuzz
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

THE UNITED STATES RELEASES ITS SECOND OPEN GOVERNMENT NATIONAL ACTION PLAN
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Nick Sinai, Gayle Smith]
The Obama Administration released the second US Open Government National Action Plan, announcing 23 new or expanded open-government commitments that will advance these efforts even further.
Among the highlights of the second National Action Plan:
“We the People”: The White House will introduce new improvements to the We the People online petitions platform aimed at making it easier to collect and submit signatures and increase public participation in using this platform.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Modernization: The FOIA encourages accountability through transparency and represents an unwavering national commitment to open government principles. Improving FOIA administration is one of the most effective ways to make the U.S. Government more open and accountable. We announced five commitments to further modernize FOIA processes, including launching a consolidated online FOIA service to improve customers’ experience, creating and making training resources available to FOIA professionals and other Federal employees, and developing common FOIA standards for agencies across government.
The Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT): The United States will join GIFT, an international network of governments and non-government organizations aimed at enhancing financial transparency, accountability, and stakeholder engagement
Open Data to the Public: Over the past few years, government data has been used by journalists to uncover variations in hospital billings, by citizens to learn more about the social services provided by charities in their communities, and by entrepreneurs building new software tools to help farmers plan and manage their crops.
Participatory Budgeting: The United States will promote community-led participatory budgeting as a tool for enabling citizens to play a role in identifying, discussing, and prioritizing certain local public spending projects, and for giving citizens a voice in how taxpayer dollars are spent in their communities.
benton.org/node/169369 | White House, The
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LOBBYING

CHAIRMAN WALDEN: TELECOM UPDATE NOT A CASH PLAY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman and House National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) put the kibosh on the idea that the new Republican push to rewrite the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a thinly veiled attempt to shake down companies for campaign contributions. During a press call on the push, Chairman Walden said he and full Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) were serious about the effort. "You can file that one away in the trash can," he said. "We've talked about updating these laws every year since I've been around here. We're starting a process to do that, and we're very serious about having a process to do hearings, to do white papers, to allow everybody to have a chance to participate." While Chairman Walden said it was too early to say what is in and out of a telecom law redo, he did say that both retransmission consent and network neutrality are likely topics. "I'm not going to prejudice all of that," he said when asked if it was time to jettison retransmission consent. "We know it's one of the big issues and it's going to get attention." On net neutrality, Chairman Walden added: "How net neutrality quote-unquote is considered will be part of that update."
benton.org/node/169374 | Politico
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AGENDA

LAST WEEK OF CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kristina Peterson, Michael Crittenden]
A Congress stymied by partisan divides, blown deadlines and intraparty squabbling gets a late chance this week to end the year with an elusive budget deal and to make headway on other fronts. In the final week of 2013 that the Senate and House are scheduled to be in Washington at the same time, lawmakers and aides are optimistic that negotiators can reach a budget accord and continue to make progress on a farm bill and other measures. Meanwhile, a Senate rule change pushed through by Democrats should help ease the way for confirmation of several of President Barack Obama's executive-branch and judicial nominees, even as Republicans still have the power to prolong the process. Lawmakers' top priority is avoiding the prospect of another government shutdown.
benton.org/node/169639 | Wall Street Journal
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

FROM VISION TO EXECUTION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
Blair Levin delivered a speech in Qatar at a symposium marking the release of the country’s National Broadband Plan. Asked to provide some comments on it in the context of outlining lessons learned from National Broadband Plans around the world, Levin suggested, “The execution of the Plan is more important than the Plan itself. Good execution can correct for any errors in the Plan. A great plan with lousy execution will ultimately fail.” He also noted that Plans erred in focusing too much on aspirations, saying ”Aspiration is easy, execution is hard.” The US National Broadband Plan architect also explained how the Federal Communications Commission tried to send that message to policy makers in the United States with use of Shakespeare “but we were probably too subtle.” Levin also noted that all Broadband Plans have the same four foundation stones: use spectrum more efficiently; drive fiber deeper into the network; get everyone on the network in one or more places; use the platform to deliver public goods more effectively. Consistent with the theme of execution, he noted that whether the country achieved the stated goals of competition and speed has very little to do with the goals themselves and everything to do with how the country “allocates spectrum and creates incentives to deploy fiber.” Levin said that while spectrum is not more important than the other three, “it is, however, the most important to get right because it is harder to course correct. If initial efforts fail to drive fiber deeper, get everyone on, and use the platform well, you can adjust rapidly. If you allocate spectrum in ways that do not work well, the embedded owners and users of the spectrum will make it difficult to shift.”
benton.org/node/169623 | Benton Foundation
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WHERE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS MUFFLED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
While it was heartening to see the White House at the forefront of the effort to ensure an unfettered press in China this past week, government officials in Britain, a supposedly advanced democracy and the United States’ closest ally, might do well to consider Vice President Joe Biden’s words. (Some of his colleagues in the Justice Department, which has ferociously prosecuted leakers, might take heed as well, but that’s a matter for a different day.) “Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of consequences,” he said. Two days before VP Biden made his comments, Alan Rusbridger, the editor in chief of The Guardian, a British newspaper, was compelled to appear before a parliamentary committee to be questioned about the newspaper’s coverage of national security material leaked by Edward J. Snowden. Rather than asking Rusbridger how a 30-year-old in Hawaii not directly employed by the government had access to so many vital secrets, the committee sought to intimidate and raised the question of whether The Guardian, in sharing the Snowden leaks with other news organizations, might have engaged in criminal activity.
benton.org/node/169621 | New York Times
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EU DATA PROTECTION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan]
US tech companies such as Facebook and Google face the prospect of dealing with 28 different European data protection watchdogs after one of the EU’s chief legal advisers raised a surprise objection to a proposed data protection law. The tech industry had lobbied for a key provision in the EU proposal, known as the “one-stop shop” rule, which would allow companies to submit to a single privacy regulator rather than competing national ones. That provision was meant to minimize the burden of complying with the new rules. But Hubert Legal, head of the legal service for the European Council, which represents the EU’s national governments, said the rule -- while helping companies -- undermined citizens’ human rights. “The problem is the results you get in terms of respecting the functioning of justice and people’s rights is actually a very bad outcome a very bad result and as your legal adviser I have to tell you it’s a bad outcome,” Hubert told EU justice ministers meeting in Brussels.
benton.org/node/169619 | Financial Times
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December 2013

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