May 2014

FCC Seeks To 'Refresh' Title II Docket

The Federal Communications Commission asked for input on former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed "Third Way" approach to legally justifying open Internet rules that was part of the docket in the initial Open Internet order proceeding.

The 'Third Way' was short of straight reclassification, instead combining applying some Title II regulations and forbearing others. Comment deadlines are July 15 for initial comments and Sept 10 for replies.

Essentially the notice opens a new pleading cycle for comments on that 2010 "'third way' approach that would apply a limited set of Title II obligations to broadband providers," the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau said. "Today’s Public Notice establishes a comment cycle by which members of the public can update the record in that proceeding in light of marketplace and legal developments over the last four years."

Despite calls from cable operators, Genachowski declined to close the Title II docket after his decision not to reclassify, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler declined to close it in the run-up to his 706 proposal. Now Chairman Wheeler is affirmatively seeking more input on that 'Third Way' approach given changes in the marketplace and various legal developments since 2010.

Google will take requests to scrub embarrassing search results. But it won’t help US users.

Google launched a Web form that allows European customers to ask for aspects of their digital histories to be expunged from the search engine -- but only in Europe.

This is Google's first response to a decision by Europe's highest court ordering the tech giant to review requests from users who say that articles linked from Google searches besmirch their reputations.

The ruling handed down chafed Google and several other search engine operators, who called it a form of censorship that forces them to make judgment calls about what should or shouldn't be on the Web. “The court's ruling requires Google to make difficult judgments about an individual's right to be forgotten and the public's right to know," Google said.

Someone submitting a request to Google must include a list of the links to be removed, a justification for the information's removal and a photo ID. The company will note when certain search information has been removed from results, similar to what it does when people search for things that have been subject to intellectual property claims. European customers searching for delisted information will see a note at the bottom of their results letting them know that something has been removed.

Google said it has already received thousands of requests to have information removed, but it has not released any details on how long it may take to review those requests. The company said it has also established an advisory committee to review the process.

Members of that review panel, the company said, will include experts on European data laws and Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales -- who has decried the decision, as the BBC reported. It will be co-chaired by Google chairman Eric Schmidt and the company's chief legal officer, David Drummond.

Google wants users to call for ‘real’ NSA reform

Google is asking its users to “demand real surveillance reform” after the recent House vote on a compromise bill to curb US spying.

The company subsequently took to Twitter asking followers to “join us in asking the Senate to fix the USA Freedom Act,” which just passed the House. “It’s time for #RealSurveillanceReform,” the tweet said, directing followers to its advocacy website.

The USA Freedom Act passed unanimously through the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees -- earning the support of pro-reform lawmakers and tech companies -- but critics say that last minute changes watered the bill down too much. The Reform Government Surveillance coalition -- made up of tech industry giants including Google -- ultimately pulled its support for the bill as it headed to the House floor.

“For example, as the bill stands today it could still permit the collection of email records from everyone who uses a particular email service,” Google said. The company’s advocacy page encourages users to add their names to the list of people calling for “real surveillance reform” as the bill heads to the Senate.

Can Governments Get Economic Data From People On The Street?

If you’re a college student in Buenos Aires or Chennai, you may have come across an unorthodox way of making extra money. Using your Android phone, an American corporation will pay you to stop by the supermarket on the way home; snap a picture of how much bread or tomatoes costs that day; and submit the price of those commodities into an elaborate data system.

California-based Premise, as they're called, uses this information as fodder for an unusual business model: getting inflation and commodity price data before governments do, sourced from regular people on the street. Using thousands of college students and other part-time workers, Premise gathers raw item prices from retailers and street markets worldwide.

The information Premise’s workers collect is used to help develop live inflation indexes and food security data for clients including hedge funds and government agencies.

According to Premise, the company is currently collecting economic data in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, India, China, Japan, and Australia. Premise is currently offering their indexes to corporations and financial service providers, to government agencies, and to marketing organizations. Of these, David Soloff, Premise’s CEO, feels government agencies have the biggest potential for licensing Premise’s indexes.

FCC Likely To Release Auction Order Early Next Week

According to various sources, the Federal Communications Commission is not likely to release the final order on its incentive auction framework order until next week.

Broadcasters had been looking for the 400-plus page order to be released by May 30, 2014, but it is now looking like June 2 at the earliest.

The FCC voted on the order May 15, but it was a split 3-2 decision along party lines. Broadcasters will be going over the order with a fine-tooth comb. They are already contemplating taking the FCC to court over its decision to use new OET-69 data and/or methodology (there is a dispute between the FCC and NAB over which it is) to calculate TV station contours for the purposes of repacking after the auction.

In their dissents, both Republicans said the item was manipulating the market by limiting wireless bidders, was not necessarily holding broadcasters harmless in the band plan, and may not even be legal.

Agencies Need to Improve Cyber Incident Response Practices

Twenty-four major federal agencies did not consistently demonstrate that they are effectively responding to cyber incidents (a security breach of a computerized system and information).

Based on a statistical sample of cyber incidents reported in fiscal year 2012, Government Accountability Office projects that these agencies did not completely document actions taken in response to detected incidents in about 65 percent of cases (with 95 percent confidence that the estimate falls between 58 and 72 percent).

The Department of Homeland Security and a component, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), offer services that assist agencies in preparing to handle cyber incidents, maintain awareness of the current threat environment, and deal with ongoing incidents.

Officials from the 24 agencies GAO surveyed said that they were generally satisfied with the assistance provided, and made suggestions to make the services more useful, such as improving reporting requirements. Although US-CERT receives feedback from agencies to improve its services, it has not yet developed performance measures for evaluating the effectiveness of the assistance it provides to agencies.

Without results-oriented performance measures, US-CERT will face challenges in ensuring it is effectively assisting federal agencies with preparing for and responding to cyber incidents.

GAO conducted this study because the number of cyber incidents reported by federal agencies increased in fiscal year 2013 significantly over the prior 3 years. GAO was asked to review federal agencies' ability to respond to cyber incidents.

To do this, GAO reviewed the extent to which (1) federal agencies are effectively responding to cyber incidents and (2) DHS is providing cybersecurity incident assistance to agencies. GAO also examined DHS and US-CERT policies, procedures, and practices, and surveyed officials from the 24 federal agencies on their experience receiving incident assistance from DHS.

GAO is making recommendations to OMB and DHS to address incident response practices governmentwide, particularly in CyberStat meetings with agencies; to the heads of six agencies to strengthen their incident response policies, plans, and procedures; and to DHS to establish measures of effectiveness for the assistance US-CERT provides to agencies. The agencies generally concurred with GAO's recommendations.

Hacker Fears Have Frustrated Efforts To Downsize Dot-Gov Sprawl

Concerns about data compromises are partly to blame for drawing out an effort to merge roughly 2,000 dot-gov websites, according to federal officials and internal emails. But officials say they are still committed to making government services and information easier to navigate, as the website consolidation initiative approaches its three-year anniversary.

Combining National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website content with content from the Coast Guard illustrates the trickiness. The Coast Guard, a Homeland Security Department agency with a dot-mil suffix, is more of a bull’s eye for hackers than NOAA, officials say. USCG employees shy away from sharing data with other agencies, one information technology employee complained on the government's Web content managers listserv in 2012. Nextgov retrieved the message, with the employee’s name redacted, through an open records request.

The Coast Guard staff "are security maniacs because hackers like to target them," wrote a NOAA web manager in the Office of Space Commercialization, which is part of the Department of Commerce.

Rise of the Chief Privacy Officer

As we become an increasingly data-based society, security breaches and the associated legal risks have escalated.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 233 data breach incidents took place as of April 14, representing an increase of 18 percent over the same time period in 2013.

Companies like Target, Michaels and Neiman Marcus know firsthand the reputational and financial damage that occurs when customers’ private information is compromised. As a result, private-sector demand for data security and privacy professionals has grown exponentially. Today many large corporations employ a chief privacy officer (CPO) to manage data protection and privacy concerns.

In the public sector, however, only a handful of statewide CPOs exist. But as big data, Internet-based everything and mobile technology grow, the CPO role could become more commonplace in the public sector.

Wireless Becoming TV's Newest Nemesis

Historically, broadcast TV's biggest foes have been cable and newspapers, but now there seems to one more major adversary: wireless operators.

Wireless has been lusting after broadcast spectrum, supporting the Federal Communications Commission's incentive auction. That's even more threatening since the auction push is headed by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the former wireless trade association chief.

Now, with Verizon's nascent LTE Multicast service, it's also planning on making a direct play for TV stations' audiences as well.

House Approves Amendment To Protect Journalists From Revealing Sources

The House has approved an amendment that could prevent journalists from being forced to reveal their sources. Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced legislation that would prohibit the Department of Justice from being able to use funds to force reporters into revealing confidential sources or information.

Rep Grayson's amendment was added to the "Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act" and would open the doors for the first Federal shield law in the United States. The room erupted with applause when the legislation was passed with a 225-183 vote. Rep Grayson told the room that it is "completely incongruous" to claim that the US has freedom of the press while threatening to place journalists in jail over sources. He said that such an amendment is long overdue and demanded that a vote take place that night.

Benton

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