September 2014

Newest Androids will join iPhones in offering default encryption, blocking police

The next generation of Google’s Android operating system will encrypt data by default for the first time, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones. Google is designing the activation procedures for new Android devices so that encryption happens automatically; only somebody who enters a device's password will be able to see the pictures, videos and communications stored on those smartphones.

Apple offers its own tips for securing your iPhone

Apple released a whole lot of information on how its security systems work -- and how its millions of users can use those tools to their advantage.

Apple is giving users more choice in controlling their privacy. For example, users now have the option to use the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, which promises not to track searches, instead of Google, Bing or Yahoo -- which all depend on tracking users' searches to survive. Beyond outlining Apple's own systems, the site also offers basic tips on how to protect your data even without turning on advanced tools, such as how to spot scam e-mails -- look out for messages that want personal information! -- and how to pick tricky security questions and answers to thwart would-be hackers.

Could The Weather Company Change Emergency Alerting?

The Weather Company, best known for The Weather Channel, is getting into the emergency alert business -- a natural fit given the company's focus and market saturation. Using its large-scale distribution and weather expertise, the company is, in partnership with local officials, building a localized alerting platform for state, local and private authorities to manage and distribute emergency alerts via The Weather Channel properties and existing local distribution points.

Facebook acknowledges news feeds are bad at news, vows to improve

Following criticism of the lack of current events in Facebook news feeds, Facebook has announced tweaks to its algorithms meant to help surface timely content. The company plans to do this by giving more value to posts that get interactions, such as likes and comments, and pushing posts when that activity seems to be cresting.

Bitcoin gets an industry-backed advocacy group

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin -- and the technologies around it -- has a newly organized group of advocates behind it, headed by someone with deep experience in translating technologies for political consumption.

Jerry Brito, a law professor who was until recently the head of the technology policy program at George Mason's Mercatus Center, announced that he will be heading an organization called Coin Center, what he describes as a "new non-profit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency technologies." "Our mission is to build a better understanding of these technologies and to promote a regulatory climate that preserves maximum freedom of action for digital currency innovation," Brito writes. "We will do this by producing and publishing policy research from respected academics and experts, educating policymakers and the media about block chain technology, and by engaging in advocacy for sound public policy." Coin Center will, according to Brito, have an annual budget of more than $1 million, with contributions from venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and RRE Ventures and bitcoin-tied firms like BitPay, Coinbase, and Xapo. Board members will include innovator and entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan, bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik, Hudson River Trading partner Alex Morcos, and Stanford business professor Susan Athey.

How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics

In the 1980s the nation’s news media were changing in profound ways.

When giants like Theodore White came up through the news business in the postwar years, the surest path to success was to gain the trust of politicians and infiltrate their world. Proximity to power and the information and insight derived from having it was the currency of the trade. By the 1980s, however, Watergate and television had combined to awaken an entirely new kind of career ambition. If you were an aspiring journalist born in the 1950s, when the baby boom was in full swing, then you entered the business at almost exactly the moment when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post were becoming not just the most celebrated reporters of their day but very likely the wealthiest and most famous journalists in American history (with the possible exception of Walter Cronkite). And what made Woodward and Bernstein so iconic wasn’t proximity, but scandal. They had actually managed to take down a mendacious American president, and in doing so they came to symbolize the hope and heroism of a new generation. There was no greater calling than to expose the lies of a politician, no matter how inconsequential those lies might turn out to be or in how dark a place they might be lurking.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison steps down as chief executive

Larry Ellison will step down as chief executive after nearly 40 years running Oracle, the company he co-founded in 1977.

Ellison, 70, will become the company's executive chairman and chief technology officer. Oracle will be run by two co-chief executives: Ellison's longtime deputy Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. Ellison will retain control of all software and hardware engineering at the company. Catz will handle manufacturing, finance and legal functions. Hurd will be in charge of sales, service and vertical industry global business units. Catz, formerly an Oracle president and its chief financial officer, has been with the company since 2005. Hurd came to Oracle in 2010 and has been the company president in charge of corporate direction and strategy for its “global field operations.”

An Update on the Volume of Open Internet Comments Submitted to the FCC

September 15 concluded the second round of comments for the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet Proceeding. During the last four months, the FCC has received a large number of comments from a wide range of constituents via three methods.

Throughout the two rounds of public comment, and despite the age of the FCC’s IT systems, the FCC IT team worked around the clock and implemented workaround solutions to scale the large volume of comments in order to keep the system up and running, ensuring the public could submit feedback to the FCC leading up to the comment deadline. The record number of comments the FCC received on this proceeding underscores the importance of the open Internet.

On network neutrality, procrastination is an even more powerful force than John Oliver

John Oliver may have gotten heaps of attention for his 13-minute early-June jeremiad on network neutrality that called viewers to contact the Federal Communications Commission to urge it to protect the Internet. But new data from the FCC reveals that Oliver's call-to-arms pales in comparison to that other great force in American life: dilly-dallying.

There was, indeed, a spike in comments submitted through the FCC’s electronic comment system after the June 1 segment; there were just 612 on the Saturday before the show, 9,673 on the Sunday it aired, and 14,899 that Monday. (Insert here the necessary 'correlation is not causation' caveat. It's also worth noting that Oliver show, in fact, had little noticeable effect on the number of comments filed by e-mail, rather the commission's Web-based system.) And Oliver seems to have set off a long-lasting ripple effect; nearly three weeks elapsed before the level of comments dropped down to pre-show levels. But a far bigger upsurge was triggered by a natural regulatory deadline: the July 15 deadline for the first round of comments. On that day -- despite the fact that the FCC's Web site largely stopped responding under the weight of contributors first filing and then search for their own comments -- some 18,740 comments were submitted. And on the next day, after the comment deadline was extended, a full 52,353 poured in.

Journalists Criticize White House for ‘Secrecy’

Editors and reporters meeting in Chicago raised concerns about what they described as a lack of access and transparency undermining journalists' work, several blaming the current White House for setting standards for secrecy that are spreading nationwide.

Criticism of President Barack Obama's administration on the issue of openness in government came on the last day of a three-day joint convention of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers. "The White House push to limit access and reduce transparency has essentially served as the secrecy road map for all kinds of organizations — from local and state governments to universities and even sporting events," Brian Carovillano, AP managing editor for US news.

Benton

Search