January 2015

President Obama must finally end NSA phone record collection, says privacy board

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is calling out President Barack Obama for continuing to collect Americans’ phone data in bulk, a year after it urged an end to the controversial National Security Agency program.

The Obama Administration could cease the mass acquisition of US phone records “at any time”, the Board said. PCLOB Chairman David Medine said that the Administration was acting in “good faith” and had agreed in principle to most of the 22 reform recommendations the board had offered in its two 2014 reports into bulk NSA surveillance. The board’s report found that the Administration had in many cases not implemented recommendations it agreed to in principle, such as assessing whether the NSA is successfully filtering out purely domestic communications when it siphons data directly from the “backbone” of the Internet.

T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Win Spectrum in FCC Auction That Raised $41.3 Billion

The Federal Communications Commission revealed the list of winning bidders in its spectrum auction, with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile among the 31 bidders that paid more than $41.3 billion. AT&T spent $18.2 billion; Verizon won $10.4 billion worth of bids, while T-Mobile’s winning bids totaled just under $1.8 billion. Two entities tied to Dish Network had winning bids of a combined $13.3 billion. Less than $1.2 billion went to other entities.

Spectrum auction is bipartisanship in action

[Commentary] What if someone told you that Republicans and Democrats in Washington, DC, worked together to create thousands of new American jobs, reduce the deficit, and contribute billions to our country’s economic growth? The Federal Communications Commission completed an auction of spectrum that will be used to expand and improve mobile broadband.

Gross bids totaled almost $44.9 billion, making this auction -- known as the AWS-3 auction -- the highest-grossing spectrum auction in US history. The wireless industry estimates that for every 10 Megahertz of spectrum licensed for wireless broadband, 7,000 American jobs are created and US gross domestic product increases by $1.7 billion. Not long ago, many people said an auction like this couldn’t be done. But both parties in Congress got together in 2012 to pass legislation, which authorized the AWS-3 auction. As we’ve seen, that auction’s success is a good sign that bipartisan, collaborative efforts can and do produce positive results for the American people. We hope to see the same level of dedication, cooperation, and ingenuity as the FCC and its partners work to ensure the Incentive Auction is a success. Bipartisan collaboration across the government is still very possible, and this work will help cement our country’s global leadership in mobile innovation.

This Week's Wireless Warnings

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom’s Ofcom all weighed in on wireless Internet issues. The three big takeaways: 1) Wi-Fi is important; 2) the Internet of Things has some trust issues to work out; and 3) throttled Internet is not unlimited Internet.

Hotels Withdraw Request to Block Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots

Marriott International and the hotel industry withdrew their request for Federal Communications Commission approval to block some personal Wi-Fi hotspots on their properties.

Marriott and the hotel industry had asked the FCC for permission to block Wi-Fi hotspots on their properties because of what they said were concerns about hacking. Marriott clarified its request recently, saying that it wouldn’t block guests from using their own Wi-Fi hotspots in hotel rooms, but would like to block them in convention or meeting spaces. That argument didn’t appear to convince a lot of people, who assumed instead that the hotel industry was more interested in protecting the revenue they receive from offering wireless Internet service than snuffing out rogue hotspots. Marriott said, “We thought we were doing the right thing asking the FCC to provide guidance, but the FCC has indicated its opposition. As we have said, we will not block Wi-Fi signals at any hotel we manage for any reason.”

Mayors of Boston, Seattle, KC, others: No more muni broadband restrictions, please

A group of 38 mayors and other elected officials from cities like Boston, Seattle, and Kansas City urged the Federal Communications Commission to strike down state laws that restrict the development of public high-speed Internet services and allow municipal networks to flourish.

In an open letter to the FCC commissioners, the Next Century Cities group emphasized the importance of universal access to high-speed Internet services. The ability to make that service generally available, according to Next Century Cities, requires that regulators give local governments a free hand in how they approach the problem -- which includes, for many, the creation of municipal broadband networks.

Bringing broadband to everybody

[Commentary] Barriers to broadband adoption still remain, particularly in lower-income communities. As technology moves forward, we are seeing certain communities fall behind. This so-called "digital divide" is unacceptable, and municipal broadband offers the kind of low-cost options these areas desperately need. Localities should have the right to decide how to invest in their broadband infrastructure.

I applaud the President's commitment to this shared goal of expanding broadband access to communities that are missing out, and my legislation aims to ensure that communities have the option of developing broadband networks. When it comes to ensuring that residents have access to affordable and dependable broadband, local communities should be empowered to make the best decisions for their unique needs. In the United States, we don't settle for average, and we shouldn't be satisfied with anything less than universal access to broadband.

Senior tech helps baby boomers come of digital age

Older people, as a group, continue to lag behind in adopting new technology, but an increasing number of elders are interested and involved in using technologies that allow them to stay more connected socially, with family and friends.

Worldwide revenue generated by home healthcare devices and associated services are expected to soar to $12.6 billion in 2018, up 121 percent from $5.7 billion in 2013, according to numbers released by market researcher IHS. Companies nationwide are tapping into market opportunities pegged "connected aging," a term in which the growing array of Internet-based technologies and mobile devices will increasingly support older adults to age in place by taking well-known technology modalities, such as social networking, e-mailing and Internet browsing to address a comprehensive range of medical, health, social and functional needs -- making them "old people friendly." With technology changing daily and new gadgets quickly becoming a standard rather than a luxury in the most competitive senior living communities, the big conundrum for these vendors is providing technology that is drop-dead simple to use -- doesn't need a ton of charging or resetting, and has long-lasting battery charge.

Sen Franken Queries Attorney General Nominee On Comcast/Time Warner Cable

Sen Al Franken (D-MN) used a portion of his time questioning Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch to argue against the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger and get assurances the Justice Department would do its due diligence on the deal.

In her nomination hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen Franken said he was "very concerned" about telecommunications consolidation, particularly Comcast/TWC's consolidation. He argued the combined company would have unprecedented power in the broadband and cable spaces. He asked Lynch to "commit to reviewing the serious concerns" he and others have about the deal and asked if Lynch would "do all you can to insure that the antitrust division is empowered to stand up to telecommunications giants like Comcast if that is what is deemed necessary?" "Certainly Senator," Lynch responded. "The antitrust division plays an extremely important role in keeping our marketplace competitive and open for everyone and I look forward to learning more about this case to review those issues and to working with you to make sure that all the concerns about this are brought to your attention so that they can be dealt with by the antitrust division." "Okay, then I'll probably vote for you," Sen Franken joked, having already confirmed he was a supporter.

Verizon to Allow Complete Opt Out of Mobile ‘Supercookies’

Verizon has decided to make a major revision to its mobile ad-targeting program. Users who do not want to be tracked with an identifier that Verizon uses for ad-targeting purposes will soon be able to completely opt out, the company said.

In the past, Verizon allowed users to opt out of the marketing side of the program, but they had no option to disable being tagged with its undeletable customer codes, which critics dubbed “supercookies.” Some security researchers quickly illustrated that third parties, like advertisers, could easily exploit Verizon’s persistent tracking to continually follow a user’s web browsing activities. Even if Verizon now allows subscribers to opt-out of having their online activities tracked using a unique customer code, that option may not satisfy privacy advocates who say consumers are unlikely to understand the implications of default tracking. Some say Verizon should have the feature turned off by default and require people to voluntarily switch it on. “What they really should be doing is opt-in,” said Nate Cardozo, a staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Benton

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