1. Monthly archive
  2. September 2014

September 2014

EU privacy watchdogs give Google guidelines to change privacy practices

European data privacy regulators handed Google a package of guidelines to help it bring the way it collects and stores user data in line with European Union law after six regulators opened investigations into the internet giant.

The group of European data protection authorities, known as the Article 29 Working Party, sent Google a list of measures it could implement, such as spelling out clearly for what purposes it collects user data and what third party entities would also be able to collect people's information. Regulators in six European countries, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, have opened investigations into Google after it consolidated its 60 privacy policies into one and started combining data collected on individual users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps.

Weekly Digest

Comcast Answers Critics

September 26, 2014 (Reliability Rather Than Rainbows)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Coming next week: School-Library Partnerships and Other Strategies for Anchor Institution Broadband Deployment http://benton.org/node/198196

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Reliability Rather Than Rainbows: Why Strong Title II Remains the Best Option For an Open Internet - analysis

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
   Federal regulators float an aggressive new plan to cut the cost of prison calls
   With just 400 Lifeline customers, T-Mobile to drop support for federal Lifeline program

OWNERSHIP
   DirecTV Shareholders Approve AT&T Deal [links to web]
   Comcast: We Aren't Calling Common Cause Extortionist
   Comcast Deal Players Seek Info Protection [links to web]

DIVERSITY
   Will Silicon Valley Have Its NFL Moment? - analysis

TELEVISION
   FCC Seeks Comment on Draft TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund Reimbursement Form - public notice [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Federal Rules for Political Advertising on Television and Radio - Campaign Legal Center press release [links to web]
   Senate Democrats lead TV ad blitz [links to web]

CONTENT
   Subscribers now watch more than 90 minutes of Netflix every single day [links to web]
   Securing Intellectual Property Protection Around The World - press release [links to web]

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   The FTC was built 100 years ago to fight monopolists. Now, it’s Washington’s most powerful technology cop.
   Why Shellshock is bad news for the Internet of things
   Google Wi-Fi Roundup Has Lawyers Chasing Landmark Jackpot
   Is Apple Picking a Fight With the US Government? - op-ed
   Apple’s new feature to curb phone tracking won’t work if you’re actually using your phone [links to web]

EDUCATION
   E-Learning on Snow Days Now an Option for Pennsylvania Schools [links to web]
   LA Unified oversight panel rejects $42 million for computers [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   An Internet Where Nobody says Anything
   China's Tech Factories Turn to Student Labor
   Google Balloons Take Flight In Vast Remote Broadband Launch [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

RAINBOWS AND TITLE II
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission published a blog post describing the “rainbow of policy and legal options” available to protect the open Internet, contrasting them to other “monochromatic options.” While I applaud the FCC moving in the right direction on policy, I hope the FCC does not exhaust itself chasing the policy rainbow when the right thing -- drab and monochromatic as it might be -- continues to stare them in the face. On the positive side, the FCC’s blog post reflects an understanding that the FCC’s original proposal from May, permitting paid prioritization (aka “Fast Lanes”) under a ‘commercial reasonableness’ standard will not do the job of protecting the open Internet. The political reality has also shifted, thanks to a tremendous public outcry in favor of recognizing that broadband is the essential service of the 21st Century, a fundamental service that everyone increasingly relies on and therefore -- to use the legal expression -- is affected with the public interest. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s own writing on the network compact likewise recognizes this fundamental principle, which has made his resistance to embracing Title II and insistence on exhausting all other option all the more frustrating.
benton.org/headlines/reliability-rather-rainbows-why-strong-title-ii-remains-best-option-open-internet | Public Knowledge
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

PRISON PHONE CALLS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
The Federal Communications Commission took another step toward addressing the concerns about paying rates that, to use an example FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn gave in a press call, make it so that a 15-minute telephone call to or from a prisoner within Arkansas can cost more than $14. "The current market structure," said Commissioner Clyburn, "perversely discourages meaningful contact." In 2013, the FCC passed rules capping inmate calling rates -- for example, to $.25 a minute for collect calls -- on communications that cross state lines. Now Commissioner Clyburn and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler have circulated to colleagues a draft proposal that would kick off the federal rulemaking process for calls that take place fully within the confines of a single state's boundaries. All those involved in the debate, though, admit that just talking about calling "rates" oversimplifies what is today a complex transaction. Securus Technologies, Global Tel*Link and Telmate are three of the companies providing prison calling services in the United States. In a filing to the FCC this month, the firms offered a proposal to address the issue that, they wrote, "consists of several inextricably linked components."
benton.org/headlines/federal-regulators-float-aggressive-new-plan-cut-cost-prison-calls | Washington Post | Wheeler and Clyburn
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T-MOBILE DROPPING LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
T-Mobile US indicated it plans to discontinue its support for the federal Lifeline phone program, which provides subsidized phone service to low-income Americans, as of the end of 2014. The carrier said the move will impact its operations in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York and Tennessee and Washington (DC). In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile said it is relinquishing its "eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) designation for the purpose of providing Lifeline services," effective Dec. 31, 2014. The company said that "upon reviewing its on-going business plans, T-Mobile has decided that it will not continue operating as a Lifeline ETC" in the states it is exiting from service. The FCC designated T-Mobile as an ETC to provide Lifeline services in the states on Aug. 16, 2012. The shutdown comes after AT&T Mobility's Cricket prepaid brand said in June that it is planning to phase out its support for the government's Lifeline service. Cricket said it will continue to support its existing Lifeline customers on CDMA phones for the next 18 months or so, and that it will not sign up any new Lifeline customers on Cricket GSM phones.
benton.org/headlines/just-400-lifeline-customers-t-mobile-drop-support-federal-lifeline-program | Fierce
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OWNERSHIP

COMCAST AND THE ‘EXTORTIONISTS’
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Common Cause demanded an apology from Comcast for what it said was being branded an extortionist in Comcast's Federal Communications Commission response to its critics (and supporters), but the company signaled it was not asserting the consumer group had demanded any quid pro quo's. In its response at the FCC to various critics of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, Comcast had said some of those critics had tried to extort various business advantages -- more money, wider carriage, free interconnection -- in exchange for not opposing or even supporting the deal. Comcast EVP David Cohen said there was nothing surprising or illegal about its competitors trying to leverage the deal to their business advantage. What was wrong he suggested was cloaking it in public or consumer interest rhetoric. Among the general critics of the deal Comcast cited was Common Cause, which felt it had been lumped in with the programmers -- Netflix, Discovery -- for "extortion" status. “We’ve never sought anything from Comcast, directly or indirectly, and the company knows it,” said Michael Copps, special adviser to Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative and former FCC chairman. "Comcast owes us an apology." "They are mixing apples and oranges," said a Comcast spokesperson. "The only references to Common Cause and the consumer groups in the opposition were 1) to rebut their criticisms against the Transaction and 2) to point out that they have been claiming since 1998 that the sky is falling and that cable mergers will mean the end of the Internet."
benton.org/headlines/comcast-we-arent-calling-common-cause-extortionist | Multichannel News
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DIVERSITY

WILL SILICONE VALLEY HAVE ITS NFL MOMENT?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jonathan Krim]
Is Silicon Valley paying attention to the public purge as the NFL grapples with long-standing bad behavior by several of its men toward women and children? As in the NFL, ill treatment of women in tech isn't new. What's startling is how in professional football, major financial stakeholders have suddenly decided that enough is enough, or at least are paying strong lip service to the idea. Sponsors have withdrawn contracts, politicians are raising eyebrows about oversight and stadium funding, and players are being yanked from the field. Not so in tech, where in a community of advanced thinkers, a level of retrograde behavior and products is proving remarkably resilient. In Silicon Valley, misogyny and sexism remain ripe for disruption.
benton.org/headlines/will-silicon-valley-have-its-nfl-moment | Wall Street Journal
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

THE FTC AT 100
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
The Federal Trade Commission is the agency that was created as a bulwark against monopoly but has grown into a powerful consumer watchdog. These days, it has gone after the likes of T-Mobile for putting spammy third-party charges on Americans' phone bills. It has chastised Google for inappropriately tracking users' Web habits. The FTC has even staked out new roles for itself on hacking and the bulk use of digital data. "The Federal Trade Commission is becoming, for better or for worse, the Federal Technology Commission," said Geoffrey Manne, executive director of the International Center for Law and Economics. On Sept 26, the FTC turns 100 years old. Here's the story of how it became Washington's go-to technology fixer.
benton.org/headlines/ftc-was-built-100-years-ago-fight-monopolists-now-its-washingtons-most-powerful-technology | Washington Post
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SHELLSHOCK
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
A major flaw in a piece of open source code that affects Mac OS X and Linux users has cybersecurity professionals scrambling to identify and patch vulnerable machines -- but embedded devices making up the so-called "Internet of Things" could be among the worst hit by the bug. Dubbed "Shellshock" by some members of the IT security community, the issue affects "bash" -- an open source code used in Unix-based systems used since the 1980s. Bash is a type of shell code for user commands, meaning it serves as a sort of direct route to controlling systems that is built in at the operating system level. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Vulnerability Database scored the vulnerability as a "10," on a scale from one to 1o, on both impacts and exploitability. US-CERT also issued an advisory, saying "exploitation of this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on an affected system."
benton.org/headlines/why-shellshock-bad-news-internet-things | Washington Post
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GOOGLE STREET VIEW CASE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Karen Gullo]
Data from two hard drives locked up in the San Francisco federal courthouse may make or break an effort to hold Google to account for what privacy advocates call an unprecedented corporate wiretapping case. If 22 people who sued the company can pinpoint their personal data in a massive cache of communications that Google’s Street View cars captured from private Wi-Fi networks, their lawyers may be able to seek billions of dollars of damages from Google. If they come up empty-handed, an outcome the company is betting on, the case will join a stack of failed privacy lawsuits accusing technology companies of tracking, capturing or sharing personal information.
benton.org/headlines/google-wi-fi-roundup-has-lawyers-chasing-landmark-jackpot | Bloomberg
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APPLE PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Matthew Green]
[Commentary] Apple is not designing systems to prevent law enforcement from executing legitimate warrants. It’s building systems that prevent everyone who might want your data -- including hackers, malicious insiders, and even hostile foreign governments -- from accessing your phone. This is absolutely in the public interest. Moreover, in the process of doing so, Apple is setting a precedent that users, and not companies, should hold the keys to their own devices. The problem with keys is that once you have them, sooner or later someone will expect you to use them. Today those requests originate from police in the United States. Tomorrow they may come from the governments of China or Russia. And while those countries certainly have legitimate crime to prosecute, they’re also well known for using technology to persecute dissidents. Apple may not see either public interest or shareholder value in becoming the world’s superintendent -- meekly unlocking the door for whichever nation’s police ask them to. Apple’s new encryption may not solve this problem entirely -- foreign governments could always ban the sale of Apple products or force Apple to redesign. But by approaching the world with a precedent that customers, not Apple, are responsible for the security of their phones, Apple can at least make a credible attempt to stay above the fray.
[Green is a research professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University]
benton.org/headlines/apple-picking-fight-us-government | Slate
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

CHINA AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: David Wertime]
Linking people across borders and boundaries is not itself a crime in China. But that behavior has been effectively criminalized when it suits the government. And the Chinese government has shown it will be most content with an Internet that challenges nothing, not even gently.
benton.org/headlines/internet-where-nobody-says-anything | Foreign Policy
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CHINA’S STUDENT LABOR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Eva Dou]
Schools send thousands of teenagers to the outskirts of Chongqing, a southwestern Chinese city, to put together electronic devices for some of the world's largest brands. Many students say they are given no choice. Chinese law limits student interns to eight work hours a day with no night shifts, and states that schools should place students in internships related to their majors. These rules are widely disregarded by factories. Student interns have become increasingly entrenched in China's labor force, especially among major electronics makers. At some factories, interns say they outnumber regular workers.
benton.org/headlines/chinas-tech-factories-turn-student-labor | Wall Street Journal
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Will Silicon Valley Have Its NFL Moment?

Is Silicon Valley paying attention to the public purge as the NFL grapples with long-standing bad behavior by several of its men toward women and children?

As in the NFL, ill treatment of women in tech isn't new. What's startling is how in professional football, major financial stakeholders have suddenly decided that enough is enough, or at least are paying strong lip service to the idea. Sponsors have withdrawn contracts, politicians are raising eyebrows about oversight and stadium funding, and players are being yanked from the field. Not so in tech, where in a community of advanced thinkers, a level of retrograde behavior and products is proving remarkably resilient. In Silicon Valley, misogyny and sexism remain ripe for disruption.

Apple’s new feature to curb phone tracking won’t work if you’re actually using your phone

A highly praised privacy function in Apple's latest operating system that is designed to thwart tracking may not be as effective as originally thought, according to a new post from Bhupinder Misra, a principal systems engineer of the Wi-Fi analytics firm AirTight Networks.

The feature, first revealed in June, is designed to prevent unwanted retail tracking that occurs as consumers move around malls and retail shops by randomizing the unique code that smartphones use to identify themselves as they search for nearby Wi-Fi networks. Misra found that the Apple privacy feature only works on select phones, namely the iPhone 5s, when the phone is locked and location capabilities such as GPS are disabled. That means the privacy protections go away if you use a fitness-tracking app or check your text messages briefly while shopping. Older iPhone users are also out of luck. According to Misra, most iPhone users won't benefit from the feature, which is only active when users have disabled all location privacy sharing and their phones aren't in use. That significantly narrows the likelihood that users will use this feature, he said.

LA Unified oversight panel rejects $42 million for computers

The Los Angeles school district's bond oversight panel rejected a move by officials to spend an additional $42 million on new computers, including purchases under a controversial -- and recently suspended -- technology contract. The bond panel rejected the plan, saying that LA Unified had not proved that it urgently needed these devices. The purchase request is the latest development in a $1.3-billion project that was supposed to provide computers for every student, teacher and campus administrator in the nation's second-largest school system.

Reliability Rather Than Rainbows: Why Strong Title II Remains the Best Option For an Open Internet

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission published a blog post describing the “rainbow of policy and legal options” available to protect the open Internet, contrasting them to other “monochromatic options.” While I applaud the FCC moving in the right direction on policy, I hope the FCC does not exhaust itself chasing the policy rainbow when the right thing -- drab and monochromatic as it might be -- continues to stare them in the face.

On the positive side, the FCC’s blog post reflects an understanding that the FCC’s original proposal from May, permitting paid prioritization (aka “Fast Lanes”) under a ‘commercial reasonableness’ standard will not do the job of protecting the open Internet. The political reality has also shifted, thanks to a tremendous public outcry in favor of recognizing that broadband is the essential service of the 21st Century, a fundamental service that everyone increasingly relies on and therefore -- to use the legal expression -- is affected with the public interest. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s own writing on the network compact likewise recognizes this fundamental principle, which has made his resistance to embracing Title II and insistence on exhausting all other option all the more frustrating.

Federal regulators float an aggressive new plan to cut the cost of prison calls

The Federal Communications Commission took another step toward addressing the concerns about paying rates that, to use an example FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn gave in a press call, make it so that a 15-minute telephone call to or from a prisoner within Arkansas can cost more than $14.

"The current market structure," said Commissioner Clyburn, "perversely discourages meaningful contact." In 2013, the FCC passed rules capping inmate calling rates -- for example, to $.25 a minute for collect calls -- on communications that cross state lines. Now Commissioner Clyburn and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler have circulated to colleagues a draft proposal that would kick off the federal rulemaking process for calls that take place fully within the confines of a single state's boundaries. All those involved in the debate, though, admit that just talking about calling "rates" oversimplifies what is today a complex transaction. Securus Technologies, Global Tel*Link and Telmate are three of the companies providing prison calling services in the United States. In a filing to the FCC this month, the firms offered a proposal to address the issue that, they wrote, "consists of several inextricably linked components."

FCC Seeks Comment on Draft TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund Reimbursement Form

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau seeks comment on a draft TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund Reimbursement Form, which broadcasters and pay-TV providers will use to submit:

  • information needed to establish an account with the Department of Treasury for payment purposes;
  • an estimate of their eligible relocation costs;
  • actual cost documentation throughout the construction period, as they incur expenses; and
  • their total expenses incurred.

Comments are due Oct 27, 2014

Comcast: We Aren't Calling Common Cause Extortionist

Common Cause demanded an apology from Comcast for what it said was being branded an extortionist in Comcast's Federal Communications Commission response to its critics (and supporters), but the company signaled it was not asserting the consumer group had demanded any quid pro quo's.

In its response at the FCC to various critics of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, Comcast had said some of those critics had tried to extort various business advantages -- more money, wider carriage, free interconnection -- in exchange for not opposing or even supporting the deal. Comcast EVP David Cohen said there was nothing surprising or illegal about its competitors trying to leverage the deal to their business advantage. What was wrong he suggested was cloaking it in public or consumer interest rhetoric. Among the general critics of the deal Comcast cited was Common Cause, which felt it had been lumped in with the programmers -- Netflix, Discovery -- for "extortion" status. “We’ve never sought anything from Comcast, directly or indirectly, and the company knows it,” said Michael Copps, special adviser to Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative and former FCC chairman. "Comcast owes us an apology." "They are mixing apples and oranges," said a Comcast spokesperson. "The only references to Common Cause and the consumer groups in the opposition were 1) to rebut their criticisms against the Transaction and 2) to point out that they have been claiming since 1998 that the sky is falling and that cable mergers will mean the end of the Internet."

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