September 2014

Lawmakers want to expand role of government privacy watchdog

A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to expand the ability of an independent agency to investigate government surveillance activities.

The Strengthening Privacy, Oversight and Transparency (SPOT) Act would expand the role of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) -- an executive branch watchdog group formed as a result of suggestion from the 9/11 Commission to investigate the privacy implications of counterterrorism policies. The legislation, spearheaded by Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-OR) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), would expand PCLOB's oversight to cover all government surveillance activities and strengthen its ability to investigate policies. For instance, the bill would make PCLOB an authorized recipient of whistleblower complaints, including from contractors and detailees, and allow it to issue its own subpoenas.

FCC Releases Agenda for Open Commission Meeting, Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Here’s the agenda for the Federal Communications Commission’s September 30 open meeting. Note that admission is free, you pay at the door. There are plenty of seats, you sit on the floor. The FCC will consider:

A Report and Order that would eliminate the FCC’s sports blackout rules, which can prevent consumers from watching their teams’ games on local television.
A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to streamline and update Part 25 of the FCC’s rules, which governs licensing and operation of space stations and earth stations for the provision of satellite communication services.
A Declaratory Ruling that clarifies that the FCC intends to make all reasonable efforts to preserve both the “coverage area” and “population served” of eligible broadcast television stations in the repacking process associated with the Incentive Auction.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise rules for unlicensed operations in the TV bands and new 600 MHz Band, including fixed and personal/portable white space devices and unlicensed microphones. The proposed changes and new rules are intended to allow more robust and spectrally efficient unlicensed operations without increasing the risk of harmful interference to other users.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to address the needs of wireless microphone users, while recognizing that they must share spectrum with other wireless uses in an increasingly crowded spectral environment.

Russia Moves to Extend Control of Media

Russia’s Parliament passed a preliminary bill that would limit foreign ownership of Russian media outlets to 20 percent, targeting several prominent publications critical of the government and extending the Kremlin’s control over the nation’s independent news media.

The country’s top business daily, Vedomosti, the Russian edition of Forbes and dozens of other news, society and fashion magazines would fall under the purview of the bill, which would force the publications to change ownership or close by 2017. The first reading of the bill was passed by a near-unanimous vote of 434-1 during an intense debate, as lawmakers charged that the West was using the news media to attack the Russian government. With the conflict in Ukraine still simmering and relations with the West at their lowest point in decades, Russia is working hard to mold its image in both international and local media. While the government has long consolidated control over the country’s leading television networks, in the last year the Kremlin has taken aggressive steps to rein in Internet media as well.

Congress to push Internet sales tax after midterm elections

Lawmakers have set up a lame-duck showdown over a long-stalled issue: whether to give states more authority to tax Internet sales. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) put the online sales tax legislation at the top of his priority list, when he shared his post-November to-do list before leaving Washington to campaign. “That is long, long overdue,” Sen Reid said of the online sales tax bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). He said he’d do “whatever it takes to get that done.”

Lawmakers extended the moratorium on Internet access taxes, which was scheduled to expire on Nov. 1, until mid-December in the stopgap spending measure. The short-term spending bill expires on Dec. 11, giving supporters a chance to pair the Marketplace Fairness Act with a longer extension of the online tax moratorium. The lame-duck session is poised to be crucial for both sides. If the online sales tax bill doesn’t become law in 2014, supporters will have to restart the legislative process in 2015 — after watching the Senate pass a version of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the first part of 2013.

When Will We Need New TV White Spaces Standard?

A new IEEE standard designated 802.19.1 aims to fix what for now is a minor flaw in TV white spaces broadband technology, but which could become more problematic in the future as the technology is more widely deployed.

When technologists figured out how to use database technology to keep track of where TV broadcast spectrum was in use by licensed broadcasters, it paved the way for wireless Internet service providers and others to use vacant broadcast spectrum to support broadband wireless connectivity. But as deployed today, the database technology doesn’t keep track of where other unlicensed users are using vacant spectrum. And considering that most, if not all, TV white spaces equipment requires at least one TV channel and that signals can travel as far as 100 kilometers, it’s easy to see how that limitation could eventually be a problem.

Impact Of Women’s Media Choices – BBG Research Findings On Seven African Countries

More than 75% of Zimbabwean women own a mobile phone, only 18% of women in Niger listen to the radio on a daily basis, and approximately half of women in Côte d’Ivoire watch TV daily.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, together with Gallup, hosted a research briefing about women’s media consumption habits across seven African countries, and how those choices affect their lives.

“We have to understand the culture and sociology of Africa as we look at its media needs and the needs of women and girls. Research is critical to know what is working and what is not, and media can be a source of informal education,” said Tara Sonenshine, Distinguished Fellow, George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, during opening remarks at the event.

Engagement with the news process also plays a critical role in women’s lives, with approximately a third of women in Mali (37%) and in Zimbabwe (32%) reporting that they had frequently shared news with family, friends, or relatives.

AT&T and Verizon defend data caps on home Internet service

AT&T and Verizon have been fighting to preserve 4Mbps as the nation’s definition of “broadband,” saying the Federal Communications Commission should abandon plans to raise the minimum to 10Mbps. The companies also argue now that the FCC should not consider data caps when deciding whether an Internet service qualifies as broadband. Verizon does not impose any caps on its home Internet service.

AT&T advertises 150GB and 250GB monthly limits with financial penalties when consumers use more than that. While AT&T sends notices to customers about heavy usage, it generally hasn’t enforced the financial penalties. Still, the companies want the ability to charge heavy broadband users extra in the future, just as they do today with their cellular offerings. AT&T and Verizon object to proposals by Netflix and others that would include data caps in the FCC’s definition of broadband. The definition affects the FCC’s analysis of nationwide broadband deployment, and companies that accept Universal Service funds when building networks in rural areas must match the standard.

Both the FCC and the FTC want to police your Internet provider

The Federal Trade Commission wrote to the Federal Communications Commission about how it regulates Internet service providers (ISPs). The FCC is exploring how best to encourage broadband providers to upgrade their networks, particularly in rural and low-income areas that aren't very well served. To that end, the agency asked the public to weigh in on whether ISPs have any legal obligations regarding privacy and security. The FTC has been making a name for itself on just these sorts of issues. The agency has gone after a number of tech companies for allegedly violating users' privacy in one way or another. So it wasn't a surprise to see the FTC write to the FCC.

What was surprising was to see the lines of power between the two agencies drawn so clearly. And while the filing was couched in a factual "here's where our authority ends and yours begins" kind of way, it was hard not to miss what might be called a little sibling rivalry. In the network neutrality fight, the FCC is debating whether it should place ISPs into the "common carriers" category. If it does, that would put broadband providers beyond the reach of the trade commission, for the most part.

FBI gags state and local police on capabilities of cellphone spy gear

The Federal Bureau of Investigation requires state and local police to keep quiet about the capabilities of a controversial type of surveillance gear that allows law enforcement to eavesdrop on cellphone calls and track individual people based on the signals emitted by their mobile devices, according to a bureau document released recently under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The December 2012 document is a heavily redacted letter between the FBI and police in Tacoma (WA) as the local department sought to acquire an IMSI catcher, sometimes described as a “fake cellphone tower” because it tricks individual phones into routing their calls and other data through the surveillance equipment. The Takoma police were buying gear produced by Harris Corp., a Florida-based company that makes the StingRay and other IMSI catchers used by law enforcement agencies across the country. The FBI letter, which was not classified but was designated as "law enforcement sensitive," told the Tacoma police chief that the Federal Communications Commission authorizes the sale of such surveillance equipment to state and local police departments on the condition that they first sign an FBI “non-disclosure agreement.”

Talking Tech in the Cradle of Liberty

Two-hundred twenty-seven years ago this week, the US Constitution was ratified in Philadelphia, establishing our system of government and enshrining a vision of a more perfect Union that still guides us today. Part of that vision was the belief that promoting communications promotes a healthy democracy.

The Constitution established the Postal Office, in part to help subsidize the press and to facilitate the distribution of news and information to the American people. I spent September 22 in Philadelphia and saw just the latest evidence that, while the technology has changed, our Founding Fathers’ insight into the importance of communications to our democracy’s health remains evergreen.

Benton

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