April 2014

[Commentary] For our intelligence services to operate effectively, and to protect us from threats, they need to be able to do things in secret, secrets whose public disclosure would be damaging to our national interests.

We depend on the legal and moral partnership of our governments and the employees and contractors it uses to maintain the confidentiality of these secrets. Yet all of this has been imperiled over the past 10 months by the slow public parading of intelligence secrets stolen by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, working with Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and others. As a result of Snowden's activities and the information that has now become available to our enemies, we have seen terrorist groups in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and in other parts of South Asia, discussing the revelations in specific terms, including the communication packages that they have used up till now and those that they will move to in the future, now that they know how they have been monitored. We have actually seen chatter among specific terrorist groups, at home and abroad, discussing how to avoid what they now perceive to be vulnerable communications methods and, consequently, how to select communications that they perceive not to be exploitable. No doubt these terrorist groups are extremely grateful to Messrs. Snowden and Greenwald and their accomplices for these useful tools in their war against our citizens, our armed forces and our way of life.

[Fox, a British Conservative, is a member of Parliament]

Sen Al Franken’s (D-MN) battle against consolidation in the media and communications industries is quickly becoming his signature issue.

While the senator keeps a low profile in Washington and generally avoids the press, he’s become a visible and vocal force when it comes to merger deals like the one now being proposed by Comcast. He opposed the company’s 2011 purchase of NBC, where he worked for years as a performer and writer for Saturday Night Live, and is now waging a one-man crusade against Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable in hearings, letters and television appearances. Sen Franken argues the combination of the nation’s two largest cable companies would be harmful to consumers and give more market share to a company with a poor reputation on customer service. “I’ve heard from consumers who are worried that this deal will result in higher prices, fewer choices, and even worse service — and it’s important to me that their voices be heard,” Sen Franken said, pointing to his past experience challenging mergers between telecom giants. “That’s why I oppose this deal, and it’s also why I actively opposed AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile and Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal.”

Federal officials plan to reserve up to a third of licenses sold in a TV airwaves auction next year for smaller wireless carriers under a plan floated recently by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Overall, the plan has something for most wireless carriers to both love and hate. While it allows all wireless carriers to bid for airwaves in an effort to drive up revenues from the sale, the plan also potentially sets aside licenses for smaller carriers. And it creates a new standard for how many licenses a wireless company can hold, which could make it easier for Verizon Wireless and AT&T to acquire more airwaves in the future, but hurt Sprint’s ability to do the same. The proposal represents an effort by Wheeler’s aides to meet two broad, conflicting goals of the auction: Raise as much money as possible (by selling licenses to wireless giants AT&T and Verizon) while increasing competition in the wireless market (by selling licenses to smaller carriers who need more prime airwaves to compete for subscribers).

[Commentary] For online industry to thrive, consumers have to trust that their smartphones today and whatever cool things displace them tomorrow are private. Period.

The technology that accomplishes this will be snapped up by consumers around the world. To fail at this is to admit that the real tech geniuses these days reside in government cubicles in Washington. Asian and European companies will become more dominant, since American technology will be suspect. And it's not just privacy from government that's at issue. Consumers need the right to know how their personal information is being used by the companies themselves, which is something the tech giants have resisted. This may require regulation unless the industry decides to put on the white hat and fight for consumer privacy in all contexts, government and private. Without quite realizing it, we have become engaged in a new war. It's over privacy. Silicon Valley needs to face up to the challenge. Now. We're getting tired of changing our passwords.