June 2014

PRIVACY/SECURITY

QUANTIFYING PRIVACY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
When does the simple digital tracking of your location and movements -- the GPS bleeps from most of our smartphones -- start to be truly revealing? When do the data points and inferences that can be drawn from it strongly suggest, say, trips to a psychiatrist, a mosque, an abortion clinic, a strip club or an AIDS treatment center? The answer, according to a new research paper, is about a week, when the data portrait of a person becomes sufficiently detailed to qualify as an “unreasonable search” and a potential violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights. The research paper, a collaboration of computer scientists and lawyers, wades into the debate over the legal and policing implications of modern data collection and analysis technology. It explores what in legal circles is called the “mosaic theory” of the Fourth Amendment, which essentially states that when linked and analyzed by software, a much richer picture emerges from combined information than from discrete data points.
benton.org/node/185235 | New York Times | read the research
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NSA COLLECTING IMAGES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Risen, Laura Poitras]
The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents. The spy agency’s reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the NSA documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the NSA finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show. The agency’s ambitions for this highly sensitive ability and the scale of its effort have not previously been disclosed. The agency intercepts “millions of images per day” -- including about 55,000 “facial recognition quality images” -- which translate into “tremendous untapped potential,” according to 2011 documents obtained from the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. While once focused on written and oral communications, the N.S.A. now considers facial images, fingerprints and other identifiers just as important to its mission of tracking suspected terrorists and other intelligence targets, the documents show.
benton.org/node/185233 | New York Times
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DATA TRANSPARENCY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] In 1970, Congress passed a law allowing people to keep track of their credit reports -- when information is used for decisions about credit, employment, housing and insurance. But the law does not cover the collection of consumer data for marketing purposes. An effort at industry self-regulation in the 1990s was short-lived. A new legislative drive is underway to provide consumers with a way to check and correct what’s collected about them by data brokers. In this opaque corner of the digital revolution, the time has come for genuine transparency.
benton.org/node/185231 | Washington Post
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REP YODER: AGENCIES SEIZING EMAILS IS ‘MUCH WORSE’ THAN NSA SPYING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
A decades-old law on emails is more of a threat to privacy than National Security Agency surveillance, according to Rep Kevin Yoder (R-KS). He expressed deep concern over the 1986 Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA), which allows police to obtain emails without a warrant. “It’s much worse than the debates we’re having over whether the NSA should be able to theoretically review phone call” data, Rep Yoder said. “This is much worse in that they’re actually reading the emails,” he said. Rep Yoder’s bill, the Email Privacy Act, would update the ECPA to require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before accessing digital communications including emails. Currently, officials can access any email that has been stored for more than six months without a warrant. The bill has wide support in the House, Rep Yoder said. He and co-sponsor Rep Jared Polis (D-CO) touted the bill’s 214 co-sponsors, just shy of half the members of the House. “We’re very close to what we in Congress like to call a magic number,” Polis said, encouraging viewers to ask their member of Congress to support the bill. Yoder asked viewers to “differentiate this from the NSA issue” when contacting their members of Congress. While both issues deal with privacy, “it is different politically,” he said. No members have come out publicly against the bill, despite pushback from federal agencies, the lawmakers said.
benton.org/node/185155 | Hill, The | Washington Post
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LABOR

WHY SILICON VALLEY’S DIVERSITY MATTERS TO ALL OF US
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] In many respects, Silicon Valley is the economic envy of the US. The area south of the San Francisco Bay led the nation in job growth in 2011 and in 2013, job growth in the South Bay and San Francisco metro areas was more than twice as fast as the countrywide rate. The technology sector drives this growth. "The Bay Area, and particularly, the South Bay and San Francisco, are the epicenter for social media, mobile and Internet commerce," said Michael Bernick, a research fellow with the Milken Institute and a former California Employment Development Department director. "These strengths are why the Bay Area outpaces the state and the nation." Demand is so strong for technology skills that Bay Area unemployment for people in the tech sector ranges from 1 percent to 3 percent. But how inclusive are the opportunities that Silicon Valley offers? We have recently seen evidence that it is not for some groups. Although tech is a key driver of the economy and makes products that many Americans use every day, it does not come close to reflecting the demographics of the country -- in terms of sex, age or race. In the United States work force over all, 80 percent of employees are white, 12 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian. Forty-seven percent of the total work force in the United States are women and 20 percent of software developers are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Why is a diverse work force so important? The data -- which in Silicon Valley usually reigns supreme -- shows that diversity of groups benefits research, development, innovation and profit.
http://benton.org/node/185135
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KAPOR CENTER FOR SOCIAL IMPACT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Russ Mitchell]
Freada Kapor Klein is co-chair of the Kapor Center for Social Impact, which seeks to diversify participation in the technology economy, focusing on “underrepresented communities.” The other co-chair is her husband, Mitch Kapor, who designed Lotus 1-2-3, the software application that sparked business adoption of personal computers in the 1980s. After the release of Google’s work force demographics, “All positions should be given on merit alone, the best qualified candidate gets the job” was among the milder comments posted on news sites. Freada Kapor Klein is having none of it. “Silicon Valley's obsession with meritocracy is delusional and aspirational and not a statement of how it really operates,” she said. “Unless someone wants to posit that intelligence is not evenly distributed across genders and race, there has to be some systematic explanation for what these numbers look like.” Google announced that it would partner with the Kapor Center to help diversify its own workforce and work with other Silicon Valley companies to do the same. Google plans a “big tent” event later in the year to bring in valley luminaries to address the issue. Klein agrees that hard work, strong computer skills and a willingness and ability to learn are essential for a successful career in technology. That's why, she said, the Kapor Center is working to improve the pipeline of talent with programs such as its SMASH Academy, which brings mostly poor black and Latino high school students to summer programs at UCLA, USC, Stanford and UC Berkeley to study science, technology, engineering and math. But, Klein maintains, tech companies often overlook minority talent through unconscious or hidden bias.
benton.org/node/185229 | Los Angeles Times
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FIXING SILICON VALLEY’S DIVERSITY PROBLEM
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Orson Aguilar]
[Commentary] The first step to fixing any problem is admitting you have one. Google just took a huge first step in acknowledging what observers of Silicon Valley have known for ages: The tech sector has a whopping diversity problem. The other big tech firms - Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, etc. - should release their own diversity figures. All should get serious about fixing the problem. How? Well, let's start with data, something the tech world is good at. Google's stats show Asians to be well represented, but lumping all Asians together is a bit like lumping all Americans together -- you lose a whole world of variation. Don't forget that the economic influence of any large company goes beyond its workforce. These companies spend many millions of dollars buying goods and services from outside suppliers. Does any of that money go to firms owned by women or people of color? We don't know. So tell us. And if your supply chain is as diversity-deficient as your workforce, do something about it. And finally, all of these companies need to understand that transparency and positive words are just the start. They need to make an ongoing commitment to bringing all of our communities onboard - not just to feel good, but because it's a business imperative in a nation where "minorities" will soon be the majority.
[Orson Aguilar is executive director of The Greenlining Institute]
benton.org/node/185245 | San Jose Mercury News
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BROADBAND FOR SCHOOLS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ramsey Cox]
The Obama Administration says it is on track to meet its goal of ensuring that every school has high-speed Internet within five years. President Obama unveiled the broadband initiative in 2013 and urged the independent Federal Communications Commission to expand a program that subsidizes Internet access with the goal of wiring 99 percent of schools. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced this spring that the agency would vote to modernize E-Rate rules before school starts back up in September. He said the FCC would likely discontinue E-Rate funding for outdated technologies, such as pagers and cooper telephone networks, and instead use that money to build out broadband and Wi-Fi. The FCC has already reallocated $2 billion of unused E-Rate funds for school broadband projects, but some Democrats on Capitol Hill think more funding is needed. The FCC is also looking at changing how it prioritizes grant funding for schools. Richard Culatta, director of the Office of Educational Technology within the Department of Education, said he supports the FCC’s efforts to look for existing funding before generating more through rate increases. “If we just throw more money at an inefficient system, that’s not good,” said Culatta. “What the FCC has done makes a lot of sense. There are a bunch of process changes that can be made to shift money before they spend anymore.”
benton.org/node/185251 | Hill, The | The Hill – more on online education
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FCC MAY CONSIDER A STRICTER DEFINITION OF BROADBAND IN THE NETFLIX AGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
What is high-speed Internet? Believe it or not, there is a technical definition. Currently, it's set at 4 megabits per second. Anything less, and in the government's view, you're not actually getting broadband-level speeds. These days, 4 Mbps may not get you very much anymore. The rise of streaming music and video means that all the things we do online now require a lot more bandwidth compared to even five years ago. So the Federal Communications Commission is beginning to consider whether to raise the definition of broadband -- a change that might have big implications for the way we regulate Internet providers. The FCC soon intends to solicit public comments on whether broadband should be redefined as 10 Mbps and up, or even as high as 25 Mbps and up, according to an agency official who asked not to be named because the draft request was not yet public. The new threshold would likely increase the number of people in the United States that statistically lack broadband, which in 2012 amounted to 6 percent of the population. Depending on the responses, the FCC may decide that broadband must be defined as being at least 10 Mbps, or even 25 Mbps.
benton.org/node/185153 | Washington Post
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FCC SEEKS TO 'REFRESH' TITLE II DOCKET
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
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.
benton.org/node/185214 | Multichannel News
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BUY THE MIRACLE BROADBAND NETWORK SOFTBANK’S MASAYOSHI SON IS SELLING
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
[Commentary] When SoftBank CEO and Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son gave a well-received talk on deplorable state of the Internet in the US, he never mentioned T-Mobile directly. However, the subtext was there: if regulators let him get his hands on T-Mobile, he wouldn’t just make the US mobile landscape the competitive, but the entire realm of Internet access. Give me T-Mobile and I’ll give you a competitor to Comcast-Time Warner, was the message Son delivered, and everybody seemed to eat it up. I think Son is being pretty disingenuous here. He simply can’t deliver the network to meet those promises. Here’s why. Mobile and wireline broadband networks are fundamentally different animals, and no matter how much wireless technology improves you’re never going to pump the same amount of capacity through a cellular connection that you would through its wireline equivalent. Son argued that today’s average LTE connection -- at 6 Mbps -- is just as fast as the home broadband speeds many Americans have today (though as The Verge’s Chris Ziegler pointed out, he seemed to be making up numbers), but Son is conflating speed with the cost of capacity. The way people use their home broadband connections simply can’t stand up to today’s mobile technology and today’s mobile business models. When looking at the technology involved, Son also stands on tenuous ground. Mobile and wireless technologies will gradually get faster and more powerful, evolving to a point where we may some day be able to consume data over wireless connections as indifferently as we consume over the wireline connections. But that kind of scenario involves much more than the cellular networks Sprint could provide.
benton.org/node/185171 | GigaOm
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GOOGLE INVESTS IN SATELLITES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Alistair Barr, Andy Pasztor]
Google plans to spend more than $1 billion on a fleet of satellites to extend Internet access to unwired regions of the globe, people familiar with the project said, hoping to overcome financial and technical problems that thwarted previous efforts. Details remain in flux, the people said, but the project will start with 180 small, high-capacity satellites orbiting the earth at lower altitudes than traditional satellites, and then could expand. Google's satellite venture is led by Greg Wyler, founder of satellite-communications startup O3b Networks, who recently joined Google with O3b's former chief technology officer, the people said. Google has also been hiring engineers from satellite company Space Systems/Loral LLC to work on the project, according to another person familiar with the hiring initiative.
benton.org/node/185247 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP

PROMETHEUS CHALLENGES FCC OWNERSHIP RULE DECISION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Prometheus Radio Project is suing the Federal Communications Commission over its latest attempt at resolving a congressionally-mandated media ownership rule review, including challenging its decision to limit joint sales agreements (JSA's) as arbitrary and capricious. Prometheus filed its challenge with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded the FCC's old media ownership rules back to the commission after Prometheus challenged the FCC's initial efforts to loosen its ownership rules back in 2002. Prometheus is challenging the Wheeler FCC's decision to combine the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial reviews into a single review, which won't be completed until 2016. At the same time the commission voted -- in a split decision -- to limit JSA's. Prometheus argues that the FCC was arbitrary and capricious in not addressing whether to attribute sharing agreements. And while the FCC did adopt the limit on JSA's, making those of over 15% of a stations weekly ad time attributable under ownership limits, it did not explain why 15% is the appropriate threshold for TV (as it already is for radio), which Prometheus argues is arbitrary and capricious, as was the FCC’s decision to attribute JSA's but not other types of sharing agreements, as was the case in the agency’s decision to not require disclosure of SSAs.
benton.org/node/185166 | Multichannel News
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WASHINGTON DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOUR CABLE BILL: WHY THE COMCAST MERGER IS INEVITABLE
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: David Sirota]
[Commentary] There are plenty of reasons to worry about the proposal to combine Comcast, America’s largest cable and broadband company, with Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable firm and third-largest broadband provider. For one, there’s ever more consolidated control over content. There’s also the possibility of certain types of content being given special (or worse) treatment based on the provider’s relationship with Comcast and Time Warner Cable. And there’s the prospect of even higher prices. Indeed a Comcast executive recently admitted that the company will not promise bills “are going to go down or even that they’re going to increase less rapidly.” In the capital of a properly functioning democracy, all of these concerns would prompt the federal government to block the deal. But Washington is an occupied city -- occupied by Comcast’s vast army. As Time magazine recently reported, “The company has registered at least 76 lobbyists across 24 firms.” Those figures include neither telecom lobbyist turned FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s chief of staff, who was a Comcast vice president and raked in $1.2 million in Comcast payments since taking his government job. All of that political power is enhanced by the $9.3 million Comcast, Time Warner Cable and their affiliates have spent on campaign contributions to federal officials in just the last few years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. So, sure, it’s possible that Washington will block the merger, but it seems unlikely in a capital that most often follows the orders of its moneyed overlords. [Sirota is a staff writer at PandoDaily]
benton.org/node/185179 | Salon
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JEFF BEWKES: PAY TV CONSOLIDATION COULD LEAD TO PROBLEMS IN LONG TERM
[SOURCE: Deadline, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
The government may have to insist on conditions before approving deals such as Comcast’s planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable and AT&T’s with DirecTV the Time Warner CEO told investors. He’s not concerned about the next few years. “In some ways it could help because they’ll be more effective distributors.” But Jeff Bewkes wants assurance that the mergers won’t close doors for consumers who want his company’s content. ”It’s a question of what happens to innovation and technical advances,” he says. “Is it used to stifle competing products” such as set top boxes or user interfaces? It’s important that electronic distributors “offer a robust market that is not cut off to multiple sources for consumers to get at the programming.”
benton.org/node/185175 | Deadline
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

THE NAB, LAWMAKERS AND PSAs
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Byron Tau]
The National Association of Broadcasters’ practice of letting members of Congress record public service announcements for free could be serving another purpose that benefits the industry, based on an analysis of lawmaker participation. The free airtime on community stations has drawn watchdogs’ attention as broadcasters are trying to showcase the importance of local radio and fight against possible new royalty fees for stations. There’s a big overlap between members who have taken advantage of the free airtime and those who have signed on as co-sponsors of an NAB-backed resolution, the Local Radio Freedom Act, according to an analysis by POLITICO. The measure says Congress shouldn’t impose new performance royalties on radio stations. More than 40 percent of 214 House offices that supported the act also recorded PSAs. On the other side of Capitol Hill, nine of the 14 Senate offices that co-sponsored the local radio legislation used the free airtime. Federal law currently bans members of Congress from taking gifts, especially from lobbyists or lobbying organizations, with some exceptions. The broadcasters group, however, rejected any connection between lawmakers’ participation in the public service announcement program and their support of the radio bill.
benton.org/node/185249 | Politico
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LOBBYING

REP BOB LATTA
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] Why is Rep Bob Latta (R-OH) claiming to be a champion of the open Internet while proposing legislation that helps ISPs shut it down? A big part of the answer can be found at the Center for Responsive Politics, which aggregates data on campaign contributions, including those made by phone and cable companies and their trade groups to members of Congress. Rep Latta is an industry favorite, having raked in a whopping $320,000 in campaign contributions from the communications sector since he took office in 2007. In the 2014 election cycle, Rep Latta has already received contributions from nearly every major ISP and supporting trade group in the country -- including a veritable “who’s who” of network neutrality haters. By now it should be clear that Latta’s bill is for the biggest companies that punch his campaign dance ticket, and not for the millions of people who have urged the Federal Communications Commission to protect the open Internet by making these same companies common carriers. But while Rep Latta may be pushing this bill, he’s not alone on Capitol Hill. Nor is his congressional brand of quid pro quo limited to one side of the aisle.
benton.org/node/185227 | Medium
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

NETWORK NEUTRALITY IN CHILE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
The Chilean telecommunications regulator Subtel has banned mobile operators from offering so-called zero-rated social media apps -- services like Twitter and Facebook that, through deals with the carriers, can be used without having to pay for mobile data. Subtel says such practices are illegal under Chilean net neutrality law. Chile was the first country to enshrine net neutrality in law, back in 2010. Europe is currently in the process of doing the same, though some argue that the new rules, which are very clear on the kind of net neutrality abuse that involve fast lanes for paying content providers, are less clear when it comes to zero-rated content. In the US, where there is no net neutrality law, AT&T is keen on offering zero-rated services.
benton.org/node/185225 | GigaOm
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Daily Digest

Analysis

June 2014

Management isn’t journalism’s strong suit

NBC Seeks Record $4.5M For Super Bowl Ads

June 2, 2014 (Why Silicon Valley’s Diversity Matters to All of US)

President Obama seeks legacy of Internet in every school

Lawmakers' PSAs for broadcasters could have other benefits

Google Invests in Satellites to Spread Internet Access

Fixing Silicon Valley's diversity problem

Amazon Absorbing Price Fight Punches

Hachette Chief Leads Book Publishers in Amazon Fight

The Antitrust Book Boomerang