October 2014

Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in US

In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests in 2013 from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations.

The number of requests, contained in a little-noticed 2014 audit of the surveillance program by the Postal Service’s inspector general, shows that the surveillance program is more extensive than previously disclosed and that oversight protecting Americans from potential abuses is lax. The audit found that in many cases the Postal Service approved requests to monitor an individual’s mail without adequately describing the reason or having proper written authorization. In addition to raising privacy concerns, the audit questioned the efficiency and accuracy of the Postal Service in handling the requests. Many requests were not processed in time, the audit said, and computer errors caused the same tracking number to be assigned to different surveillance requests.

Google’s playing a multibillion-dollar game of chicken with traditional ISPs

No matter what the biggest Internet providers say, the average American knows that getting a competitive Internet connection can be difficult -- if not impossible, at times. New entrants such as Google Fiber have come seemingly out of nowhere to shake up this dynamic in some markets, prompting a race among Internet service providers (ISPs) to upgrade speeds and expand access to the fastest, cheapest fiber around. But a big question is how long this push can last.

Will the majority of America be served by Google Fiber when all is said and done? If not, can Google compel other providers to build out their fiber offerings -- and what will that take, exactly? If AT&T is convinced that Google Fiber wants to be everywhere, then it'll be incentivized to flood the zone itself. If AT&T thinks Google wants AT&T to do all the heavy lifting, then Google will have distracted its rival while it lays the groundwork for a much larger surprise attack. Of course, now that AT&T is poised to unveil fiber in many more cities than Google Fiber has hinted at, AT&T may have insulated itself from said surprise attack.

ICANN, Regulators Clash Over Illegal Online Drug Sales

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the closest thing the freewheeling Internet has to a regulator, but the agency’s powers are limited.

It manages technical functions that help the Web operate by allowing computers to locate the correct servers and websites. ICANN also oversees roughly 1,100 registrars that sell Web addresses -- and collects about one-third of its operating expenses from those firms. Because of its central role, regulators and law-enforcement agencies around the world say ICANN could be crucial to their crackdown on illicit Internet operators of all kinds. ICANN officials also say the organization does everything it can to prevent or stop illegal activity online. Critics misunderstand ICANN ‘s role and the limits of its power, the organization’s top officials say.

Equinix, the Internet’s Biggest Landlord

Data-center giant Equinix Inc. is hardly a household name, but it’s hard to find a household that isn’t in some sense a customer.

With a string of network hubs from Shanghai to Dubai, the company has become the Internet’s biggest landlord, renting slices of its air-conditioned floors to virtually every company that operates online. That commanding presence has made it a flashpoint in the debate between purists who see the Internet largely as a utility and companies like Equinix, which built its business on the commercialization of the Web’s connective tissue. It has also led an unlikely group of engineers from companies like Netflix and Comcast to launch a nonprofit association they hope will spur cheaper alternatives.

Hacking Trail Leads to Russia, Experts Say

Computer-security experts say they found what they describe as a sophisticated cyberweapon on a network at a US firm harboring military secrets, and that the spy tool was built during Moscow working hours.

Civil liberties groups think this Tennessee school district’s tech policy is unconstitutional

Civil liberties groups are asking a Tennessee school district to suspend its technology policy, saying it gives school administrators too much power to search students' cellphones and monitor their technology use, as well as limit their social media activity even when it occurs off campus.

When students bring their own devices, like smartphones, onto campus, the Williamson County school district asks parents and students to agree to allow school personnel to search them with few limitations. "The school district may collect and examine any device at any time for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this agreement, investigating student discipline issues, or for any other school-related purpose," according to the district's "Acceptable Use, Media Release, and Internet Safety Procedures" policy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that the policy for the school district just south of Nashville subjects students to "suspicionless -- and limitless -- searches" of their devices "for essentially any purpose and without any rational that justifies such a considerable intrusion."

FEC eyes regulations on online political ads

Democrats on the Federal Election Commission want to extend the agency’s reach to online political ads, a change in policy that critics fear could lead to tough new limits on online speech.

On Oct 24, the FEC deadlocked 3-3 on whether or not to investigate Checks and Balances for Economic Growth, a group that ran a pair of online advertisements attacking President Barack Obama and Sen Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2012. While the organization may have spent close to a million dollars on the ads, it did not file any disclosure reports with the FEC, as it would have if the ads had been run on television or the radio. The carve-out for online-only communications in the FEC’s rules, known as the “Internet exemption,” has existed for more than eight years to make sure political blog posts, websites, social media updates and YouTube videos are not regulated. But Vice Chairwoman Ann Ravel, a Democrat, said that the rules have not kept pace with the changing times.

Broadcast Television Is About to Go the Way of AM Radio

[Commentary] The new streaming offerings from HBO and CBS are early signs that regular television is the new AM radio. TV is changing for a bunch of pressing reasons: We like to have more control over what we watch and when; streaming over the Internet works well now; we hate paying cable company prices. But more profoundly, television is changing for big, mega-trend reasons.

The forces at work, driven by the Internet and data, add up to a giant generational shift toward a 21st century, free-form, urban, mobile lifestyle and away from the schedules, structures, suburbs, offices and marriages of the post-World War II era. In this new environment, the old model of broadcast TV will last about as long as an ice cube in a freshly poured glass of bourbon. “Our job is to do the best content we can and let people enjoy it in whatever way they want,” CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said on October 16 when announcing CBS All Access, the network’s subscription Internet service. “The world is heading in that direction.” Which is true, except that for anyone under 30, it’s already there. TV will transform into a collage of subscription services, pay-per-view offerings and ad-supported free stuff, all available over any network on any device at any time.

Change happens much the way Ernest Hemingway described the onset of bankruptcy in The Sun Also Rises: gradually and then suddenly. The forces that would break TV built up little by little for decades. Now comes the suddenly part.

Investing in Regulation Rather than Networks

In the last couple weeks, in a series of meetings with the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile continued its on-going campaign for rate regulation of roaming services. T-Mobile frames its argument as a request for clarification. But make no mistake -- T-Mobile is not seeking a clarification of the FCC’s 2011 Data Roaming Rules. It is instead seeking radical changes in those rules that would gut the balance the FCC struck between ensuring the availability of commercially reasonable data roaming services while maintaining incentives for carriers to build out their networks. AT&T’s previously filed opposition demonstrates in no uncertain terms that the data roaming market is functioning well.

What your smartphone addiction actually looks like

If you are one of the thousands of Washington Post readers accessing this page on your smartphone, please chill for a minute. Look around. Observe the commuters or bored line-waiters or distracted dining companions around you. Chances are, says Babycakes Romero, a London-based photographer, you’ll notice plenty of other people who are suctioned to their screens. Because for better or worse, the cellphone has become modern society’s security blanket: a way to protect ourselves from the inherent loneliness or awkwardness of the human condition … but also an unlikely source of both.

Benton

Search