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  2. August 2014

August 2014

Teens Are Waging a Privacy War on the Internet — Why Marketers Should Listen

danah boyd on the increasingly sophisticated ways that Internet users (especially teenagers, who are businesses’ future customers) craft posts to safeguard their privacy, transmit hidden messages to selected recipients and even hijack advertisers’ carefully crafted algorithms that determine which ads are sent to consumers. boyd also addresses how the very act of planning and building technology entangles us in larger cultural and political questions, the implications of which we are only beginning to understand.

The Pope is wrong about the Internet and teenagers.

The Pope told some altar servers that “Maybe many young people waste too many hours on futile things.” What are those futile things? According to His Holiness, they include: “chatting on the Internet or with smartphones, watching TV soap operas, and (using) the products of technological progress, which should simplify and improve the quality of life, but distract attention away from what is really important.” Really? These are not futile things. These are the very stuff that teenage life is made of. That glowing screen is the last ship to the mainland of traditional adolescence.

August 29, 2014 (What Are People Saying About Comcast/Time Warner Cable?)

Headlines will be back TUESDAY, Sept 2 – Enjoy the Labor Day weekend

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2014

Building a Community Broadband Roadmap: Lessons in Implementation http://benton.org/calendar/2014-08-31--P1W/

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   Guns, butter and broadband: How technology has finally emerged as a viable campaign issue - analysis
   NAB to FCC: Cable, DBS Should Join Political File Party [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   What Are People Saying About Comcast/Time Warner Cable? (Part I) - Kevin Taglang analysis
   FCC Move to Reduce Consolidation, Close Media Ownership Loopholes, Already Increasing Diverse Ownership - press release

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Net Neutrality Vs. Free Speech - Robert McDowell op-ed
    See also: Comcast, Marxism, and Net neutrality: Twisted words, shameless hypocrisy [links to web]
   New Initiative on Internet Governance - World Economic Forum press release
   NewWave Sets Stage for 1-Gig [links to web]
   US: NSA leaks should be no excuse for local storage mandates, which harm “organic” Internet [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   US wireless users may get to share military spectrum [links to web]
   FCC Supports Fast Track for NAB Auction Challenge [links to web]

TELEVISION/VIDEO
   Why isn't your pay-TV bill reduced when a channel is removed? [links to web]
   American Television Alliance: CBS Radio Rejects Local Choice Ad [links to web]
   ESPN Pays Four Times the Going Rate to Air NFL Games [links to web]
   Why Would Anyone Watch Twitch? - analysis [links to web]
   Numbers Game: Behind Consumers’ Desire For Connected TV - op-ed [links to web]
   Next-Gen TV Tops New NAB Tech's Agenda [links to web]
   The Case against Binge-Watching TV - analysis [links to web]

CHILDREN AND MEDIA
   FTC proposes to expand children's online privacy protection rule [links to web]

EDUCATION
   Broadband pilots could serve as models for other states

ACCESSIBILITY
   FCC Seeks Comment On The Accessibility Of Communications Technologies - public notice

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   Apple tightens privacy rules for health apps [links to web]
   Hillary Clinton: 'Our technology companies are not part of our government' [links to web]
   San Jose’s Campos suspends effort to extend social media privacy to government workers [links to web]
   Irish Panel to Pick Privacy Regulator With Global Reach

POLICYMAKERS
   President Obama picks DC attorney Danny Marti to be the next “IP czar”
   President Obama Asks Todd Park to Continue Administration Service in New Role after Returning to Silicon Valley - press release
   Irish Panel to Pick Privacy Regulator With Global Reach

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Irish Panel to Pick Privacy Regulator With Global Reach
   Brazilian Flirtation Pushes Telecom Behemoths Telefónica and Telecom Italia Toward Divorce [links to web]
   Cloud Computing: The Concept, Impacts and the Role of Government Policy - OECD research [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Why big data has some big problems when it comes to public policy - analysis [links to web]
   End the Tyranny of 24/7 E-mail - op-ed [links to web]

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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS

GUNS, BUTTER AND BROADBAND: HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS FINALLY EMERGED AS A VIABLE CAMPAIGN ISSUE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
[Commentary] The New York Times has endorsed Tim Wu, the progressive candidate for New York lieutenant governor, in its editorial pages. The endorsement is a sign that technology, long relegated to the fringes of political discussion, has finally become a dinner-table issue and the basis for a viable campaign platform. As the Web keeps taking over ever larger chunks of the economy, the policies that govern it have become increasingly relevant to the average consumer. Large, public debates like the one involving SOPA and PIPA, or cellphone unlocking, or net neutrality, have a direct effect on what Americans can do with their connected devices and the services layered on top of them. And that's made tech a hot-button issue.
benton.org/headlines/guns-butter-and-broadband-how-technology-has-finally-emerged-viable-campaign-issue | Washington Post | NYTimes endorsement
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OWNERSHIP

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING ABOUT COMCAST/TWC?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] August 25, 2014, as Comcast’s David Cohen helpfully reminded us, was the due date for the first round of comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s review of Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The FCC’s review of the transaction is aimed at determining whether or not it is in the public interest and allows interested parties to aid in that determination. So what are the concerns raised this week in filings at the FCC? Today we start an examination of some of the most-notable filings. (We'll follow up with more next week.)
http://benton.org/node/201252
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FCC MOVE TO REDUCE CONSOLIDATION, CLOSE MEDIA OWNERSHIP LOOPHOLES, ALREADY INCREASING DIVERSE OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: National Hispanic Media Coalition, AUTHOR: Press release]
Gray Television announced that it had secured new, diverse owners for six television stations that it had acquired and previously operated under shared service agreements. The divestitures appear to be the direct result of recent statements by the Federal Communications Commission indicating that it would scrutinize any transfers of licenses that involve sidecar deals that indicate control or influence. In Colorado, Gray will transfer one station to an Asian American husband and wife ownership team. In North Dakota, one station will be transferred to a respected South Asian broadcaster. Four other stations in various markets will be transferred to an ownership team consisting of two female broadcasters. All of the transfers result in full ownership and control of the broadcasting outlets by women and people of color.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-move-reduce-consolidation-close-media-ownership-loopholes-already-increasing-diverse | National Hispanic Media Coalition
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

NET NEUTRALITY VS FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Robert McDowell]
[Commentary] Time Warner Cable and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association are trying to drag Internet "edge" providers -- including the websites of local broadcasters airing ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- down with them into the regulatory abyss. The Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to turn the Internet into what amounts to a federally regulated public utility has produced tortured logic among cable interests: If Internet service providers are going to be regulated, then websites that their subscribers watch -- especially broadcasters' sites -- should be regulated too. They say broadcasters should not be allowed to take down or withhold the content they produce and own from online distribution even if subscribers have not paid for it -- as a matter of federal law. In other words, edge providers should be forced to stream their online content no matter what. Such an overreach, of course, would lay waste to the economics of the Internet. It would also violate the First Amendment's prohibition against state-mandated, or forced, speech -- the flip side of censorship. [McDowell is a former FCC commissioner and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute]
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-vs-free-speech | Wall Street Journal
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NEW INITIATIVE ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE
[SOURCE: World Economic Forum, AUTHOR: Press release]
The World Economic Forum has announced the launch of the NETmundial Initiative on Internet governance cooperation. Through close collaboration with key government, industry, academic and civil society partners, including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the new initiative will provide a venue for leaders from many regions and sectors of society to discuss and collaboratively address a range of emerging policy challenges related to the Internet. Specifically, the initiative seeks to provide an international, multistakeholder platform that brings together government, business and civil society leaders, along with the representatives of technical communities, to sustain and strengthen an effective and distributed approach to Internet governance. The initiative will seek to make a contribution to the positive evolution of multistakeholder Internet governance in two concrete respects:
First, taking advantage of the World Economic Forum’s uniquely interdisciplinary, leader-level multistakeholder communities, it aims to support a broader policy dialogue on issues that would benefit from the engagement of additional relevant ministries, industries and academic and civil society expertise beyond those specializing in the ICT sector and participating regularly in traditional Internet governance fora.
Second, it will serve as a platform for galvanizing support for capacity building in two respects: to support developing countries that wish to enhance their access to the Internet and build their own multistakeholder governance frameworks; and to explore ways to strengthen the capacity of the decentralized Internet governance ecosystem to respond to specific issues or problems that arise, including those encountered by developing countries which may not be in a position to readily identify relevant expertise and resources.
benton.org/headlines/new-initiative-internet-governance | World Economic Forum | Commerce Sec Pritzker
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EDUCATION

BROADBAND PILOTS COULD SERVE AS MODELS FOR OTHER STATES
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Dennis Pierce]
Arkansas and Virginia have teamed up with EducationSuperHighway to design a cost-effective plan for meeting President Barack Obama’s goal of ensuring broadband access for every student. EducationSuperHighwayis surveying the available bandwidth in Arkansas and Virginia classrooms. The group then will assess what broadband technologies are available in each state. To take an inventory of the current state of Internet access in Arkansas and Virginia classrooms, EducationSuperHighway is analyzing E-rate requests for each of these states’ schools, among other data.
benton.org/headlines/broadband-pilots-could-serve-models-other-states | eSchool News
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ACCESSIBILITY

FCC SEEKS COMMENT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
This Public Notice seeks comment on tentative findings for the 2014 Biennial Report to Congress on the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). Public comment will assist the Federal Communications Commission in assessing the following: (1) the level of compliance with the CVAA’s mandates requiring telecommunications and advanced communications services and equipment to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; (2) the effect of related recordkeeping and enforcement obligations; and (3) the extent to which accessibility barriers still exist with respect to new communications technologies. The FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau will submit the final Report to Congress by October 8, 2014. Interested parties may file comments on or before September 11, 2014.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-seeks-comment-accessibility-communications-technologies | Federal Communications Commission
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POLICYMAKERS

DANNY MARTI
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
President Barack Obama is nominating a new Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, known colloquially as the "IP czar." He is Washington lawyer Daniel H. Marti. A longtime trademark and copyright lawyer, Marti, who is known as "Danny," is the managing partner in the DC office of the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. The position coordinates US law-enforcement strategy around copyright, patents and trademarks. The coordinator's duties, somewhat controversial from the start, include harmonizing the enforcement activities of several federal agencies under the White House's Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement. The "czar" spot has been vacant since last August, when Victoria Espinel left the post. When paired with the long-standing vacancy at the head of the US Patent and Trademark Office, that has led to grumbling in some quarters that the White House hasn't been making a priority of so-called intellectual property issues.
benton.org/headlines/president-obama-picks-dc-attorney-danny-marti-be-next-ip-czar | Washington Post |
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PRESIDENT OBAMA ASKS TODD PARK TO CONTINUE ADMINISTRATION SERVICE IN NEW ROLE AFTER RETURNING TO SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Lindsay Holst]
President Barack Obama has asked US Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President Todd Park to take on a new role for the Administration as a technology advisor based in Silicon Valley. Park will begin the new role in September after he and his family have returned home to California. Park’s focus will be recruiting more top tech talent like Mikey Dickerson into government and identifying innovative ways to improve the quality of government digital services, two central goals of the President’s Smarter IT Delivery agenda. He will also help ensure that the Administration has an on-the-ground sense of how technology is evolving and can craft policy and initiatives accordingly.
benton.org/headlines/president-obama-asks-todd-park-continue-administration-service-new-role-after-returning | White House, The | nextgov | Wired
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

IRISH DATA PRIVACY REGULATOR
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Scott]
An Irish government committee is set to pick the country’s new data privacy regulator, a relatively obscure position but one with global sway. The five-person panel of civil servants and privacy experts will choose a data protection commissioner, who will have a large say in how Internet giants including Facebook and Apple use online information from roughly a billion users. That is because the regulator has the power to police any company based in Ireland, and over the past two decades many of the world’s largest technology companies have moved their international headquarters there, in large part because of the country’s low corporate tax rates.
benton.org/headlines/irish-panel-pick-privacy-regulator-global-reach | New York Times
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What Are People Saying About Comcast/Time Warner Cable? (Part I)

[Commentary] August 25, 2014, as Comcast’s David Cohen helpfully reminded us, was the due date for the first round of comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s review of Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The FCC’s review of the transaction is aimed at determining whether or not it is in the public interest and allows interested parties to aid in that determination. So what are the concerns raised this week in filings at the FCC? Today we start an examination of some of the most-notable filings. (We'll follow up with more next week.)

Net Neutrality Vs. Free Speech

[Commentary] Time Warner Cable and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association are trying to drag Internet "edge" providers -- including the websites of local broadcasters airing ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- down with them into the regulatory abyss.

The Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to turn the Internet into what amounts to a federally regulated public utility has produced tortured logic among cable interests: If Internet service providers are going to be regulated, then websites that their subscribers watch -- especially broadcasters' sites -- should be regulated too. They say broadcasters should not be allowed to take down or withhold the content they produce and own from online distribution even if subscribers have not paid for it -- as a matter of federal law. In other words, edge providers should be forced to stream their online content no matter what. Such an overreach, of course, would lay waste to the economics of the Internet. It would also violate the First Amendment's prohibition against state-mandated, or forced, speech -- the flip side of censorship.

[McDowell is a former FCC commissioner and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute]

Comcast, Marxism, and Net neutrality: Twisted words, shameless hypocrisy

In the final weeks for filing comments to the Federal Communications Commission on network neutrality, the gloves have come off and the world's turned upside down. Witness: One conservative lobbying group blasting the concept as "Marxist" and Comcast -- of all companies -- proclaiming itself the open Internet's best friend. You have until Sept. 15 to make your opinions on this topic known to the FCC.

President Obama picks DC attorney Danny Marti to be the next “IP czar”

President Barack Obama is nominating a new Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, known colloquially as the "IP czar." He is Washington lawyer Daniel H. Marti.

A longtime trademark and copyright lawyer, Marti, who is known as "Danny," is the managing partner in the DC office of the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. The position coordinates US law-enforcement strategy around copyright, patents and trademarks. The coordinator's duties, somewhat controversial from the start, include harmonizing the enforcement activities of several federal agencies under the White House's Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement. The "czar" spot has been vacant since last August, when Victoria Espinel left the post. When paired with the long-standing vacancy at the head of the US Patent and Trademark Office, that has led to grumbling in some quarters that the White House hasn't been making a priority of so-called intellectual property issues.

Why isn't your pay-TV bill reduced when a channel is removed?

[Commentary] Should people have to pay for something they don't want? And shouldn’t your bill be reduced when a channel goes away? If McDonald's is selling a Happy Meal containing a burger, fries and a drink, and then it stops including the drink, there's no economic rationale that would explain charging the same price. Other than greed, that is.

Jarryd Gonzales, a Verizon spokesman, said that "from time to time, we review the FiOS-TV channel lineup to make sure that all content is providing commensurate value to our customers, and occasionally that results in removal of particular channels." He said removing a little-watched channel "often helps us to forestall price increases." But people's bills might not go down, Gonzales said, because Verizon continues "to add more content and features to our FiOS customers." He noted that FiOS has beefed up its mobile offerings with its online app and has added more high-definition channels, including Al Jazeera America and conservative One America News Network. The counter to that, of course, is that not all customers may want to watch TV on their mobile devices or view the new HD channels. But they're paying for them regardless.

Apple tightens privacy rules for health apps

Apple is tightening up its privacy rules to ensure a new generation of health and fitness apps are not thwarted by growing concerns over how developers use personal data.

The rules will stop personal data collected through Apple’s new HealthKit platform being used to target adverts for products such as weight loss remedies. HealthKit, which will track data including exercise levels and sleep, is one of the key features of a new mobile operating system that will launch alongside a new iPhone and a highly anticipated wearable device, dubbed the iWatch by pundits.

San Jose’s Campos suspends effort to extend social media privacy to government workers

After success passing a law that bars private employers from demanding social media passwords from employees and job applicants, San Jose Assemblywoman Nora Campos has suspended efforts to extend those protections to government workers. The powerful Assembly Speaker pro tempore ran into a fusillade from critics including the state's police chiefs, district attorneys and the League of California Cities. They argued her Assembly Bill 25 would hurt government employers' ability to properly screen applicants for law enforcement and other sensitive jobs and promotions.

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