December 2014

How the Internet’s Engineers are Fighting Mass Surveillance

The Internet Engineering Task Force has played down suggestions that the National Security Agency is weakening the security of the Internet through its standardization processes, and has insisted that the nature of those processes will result in better online privacy for all. A year and a half after Edward Snowden blew the lid on the activities of the NSA and its international partners, it looks like real progress is being made. Here’s a rundown on why the IETF is confident that the NSA can’t derail those efforts -- and what exactly it is that the group is doing to enhance online security:

The IETF is in the process of formalizing a concept called “opportunistic security” whereby -- even if full end-to-end security isn’t practical for whatever reason -- some security is now officially recognized as being better than nothing.
HTTP 2, currently being finalized by the IETF and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is on the way, and it will support the padding of traffic so as to make it harder for spies to draw inferences from packet size.
The IETF is also officially killing off RC4, a cipher used in the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol that supposedly provides the security behind the “https” you see denoting secure connections in web addresses.
A separate working group is trying to develop a new DNS Private Exchange (DPRIVE) mechanism to make DNS transactions -- where someone enters a web address and a Domain Name System server translates it to a machine-friendly IP address -- more private.

Both Sides Make Closing Net Neutrality Arguments as Decision Looms

Several tech industry associations, including the Computer & Communications Industry Association and startup group Engine, filed a joint letter asking Federal Communications Commission officials to use a “light-touch policy framework” when writing new rules to prohibit discriminatory delivery of Internet traffic. One thing that has changed in the ongoing, eye-glazing debate over legal justifications is that both sides now appear to assume that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will propose reversing the FCC’s decade-old decision to deregulate Internet lines. Notably, the conversation has now shifted from whether to re-regulate Internet lines under Title II of the Communications Act to how the agency could do it. Internet providers are urging the FCC to use few if any sections of Title II, while net neutrality proponents are pressing the agency to rely on a handful of key sections.

A Faster Internet in 2015?

[Commentary] Telecommunications companies have been eager to offload their copper networks along with the burden of legacy regulation they carry -- the companies haven’t been eager to invest in bringing Americans superfast DSL as seen in Europe and Asia. Why not? Beginning in the ’90s, US regulators cast a DSL nuclear winter over the country, forcing phone companies to lease their lines at a loss to competitors -- exactly the sort of common-carrier regulation President Barack Obama’s supporters now want extended over every Internet carrier in the name of network neutrality. What happens to emerging business models for local Internet if investors and entrepreneurs suddenly discover they would be regulated as utilities? That’s a question nobody is asking. The new distribution business models would do infinitely more to meet the real broadband needs and wishes of Americans than the broadband-as-utility policy, which would likely just cast a pall over the willingness of operators to make such investments at all.

9 maps that explained the Internet in 2014

This was a big year for the Internet, from the US debate over network neutrality to proposals to shift control of the World Wide Web to the global community. Here are maps that can help you understand how the Internet worked and how people used it in 2014:

1) Internet Freedom Around the World
2) When Ferguson hit Twitter
3) Everyone who clicked Facebook’s “I voted” button
4) Undersea cables mapped like the London Tube
5) A map of all the Comcast and Time Warner Cable customers who may find themselves under a new company's banner
6) T-Mobile got a lot of new spectrum from Verizon.
7) Devices connected to the Internet
8) Broadband subscription rates in the United States.
9) Barriers on public broadband networks

Apple Hit With Class Action Over Storage Eaten Up By iOS 8

Apple has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it doesn’t inform users just how much storage its new operating system will eat up -- and then prods them to buy more space through its iCloud service. The case, filed in the Bay Area’s federal court, claims iOS 8 can take up as much as 23.1 percent of the advertised storage capacity on Apple gadgets, but few users realize that when they make their purchases. Seeking damages and changes to Apple policies under California state law, plaintiffs hope to represent sweeping classes of users who bought Apple gadgets with iOS 8 already installed and users who upgraded to the latest version of the software.

FTC Approves Final Order Settling Charges Against Snapchat

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Snapchat deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Snapchat also deceived consumers over the amount of personal data it collected and the security measures taken to protect that data from misuse and unauthorized disclosure. The settlement prohibits Snapchat from misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users’ information. In addition, the company will be required to implement a comprehensive privacy program that will be monitored by an independent privacy professional for the next 20 years.

The dark web: what it is, how it works, and why it's not going away

2014 saw the continued growth of the dark web, a collection of underground websites that allow people to engage in often-illegal activities beyond the reach of law enforcement.

People use the dark web for a variety of purposes: buying and selling drugs, discussing hacking techniques and selling hacking services, trading child pornography, and so forth. A digital black market needs the digital equivalent of cash, and that's exactly what Bitcoin is. Bitcoin, like cash, allows transactions to be made anonymously. And with no one in charge of the Bitcoin network, there's no one with the authority to block illicit transactions. (The dark web is not the same as the deep web; the deep web is a broader concept. It refers to all online content that's not accessible to search engines.) The government is unlikely to ever fully suppress the dark web for the same reason that law enforcement has never been able to eliminate conventional black markets: there's a lot of demand for the information and products offered on these sites, and there's always going to be someone willing to take the risks involved in meeting that demand.

Cable Channels Put Movies on Regular Repeat

Theatrical movies in general are having a renaissance on television.

Yes, cable networks dream of finding the next “Duck Dynasty” or “The Walking Dead” or buying a rerun that can deliver big ratings like “The Big Bang Theory” has for TBS, but in the meantime they are hedging their bets with movies. Five years ago, 41 basic cable networks aired movies. Now about 60 do. “Movies are a limited-risk investment,” said Frances Manfredi, NBCUniversal Television’s president of distribution. Another bonus, she added, is that theatricals usually require far less promotion than an original or acquired series. Now that demand is so high, movie studios are changing how they sell movies. Instead of selling a film to one network for four years, they are splitting that “exclusive window,” giving multiple networks slices of time to run it. In 2013, theatricals averaged 2.7 million viewers, only 200,000 less than their average in 2009, despite the huge increase in availability of movies during that time not only on cable but also on online platforms, such as Amazon and Netflix.

When Internet addiction is actually a good thing

A study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong claims that 420 million people are addicted to the Internet, about 6 percent of the world’s population. That 6 percent number may not sound high but it is -- it’s actually more than three times the rates of pathological gambling observed in even the most gambling-obsessed nations around the world.

But consider another, more positive scenario: That 6 percent number is actually a sign that more people than ever before are using the Internet to drive rapid and systematic socioeconomic change. Rapid rates of Internet adoption by the world’s youth are the reason why we are seeing Arab Spring-type scenarios spontaneously happen around the globe. Impoverished nations with weak socioeconomic safety nets are more likely to have worse Internet addiction rates than wealthier nations. In fact, Internet addiction was found to be highest in countries or regions with a lower quality of life. People are getting addicted to the Internet because their real-world lives are so awful and they want some form of escape, not because they are surrounded by tablets and smartphones and PCs. It’s not so much that people are “addicts” -- it’s that they are intoxicated with the ability to use the Internet to change their standards of living.

A Flurry of Varying Cellphone Offers Sows Confusion Among Consumers

For cellphone customers, competition has meant they will occasionally receive more for their money, or they might even obtain a better deal when they switch to a different phone carrier. But with that savings opportunity has come the risk of phone bill surprises even for knowledgeable consumers.

Even executives at the wireless phone companies say their industry has created a Tower of Babel of competing plans, with highly specific requirements and offerings and even, in many cases, unique language buried in the fine print. John Simpson, a consumer advocate for Consumer Watchdog, said consumers should carefully research their data use habits before picking a phone plan. “I don’t think most of the plans are doing the best job at being transparent about what they’re offering. It’s much more the case they’re designed to obfuscate” the terms, Simpson said.

Benton

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