January 2015

GOP faces Patriot Act choice

The battle over what changes should be made to the Patriot Act -- and whether it should be reauthorized at all -- is likely to be an early test of Republican leaders’ ability to keep their party unified while controlling both chambers of Congress.

Republicans are far from united on the spy programs. Leaders on Capitol Hill could face an insurrection from the libertarian wing of their party if they try to push through a blanket reauthorization or make only cosmetic changes to the law. On June 1, key portions of the Patriot Act that update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) are set to expire. Among them is Section 215, which the National Security Agency has used to authorize the collection of bulk records about millions of US citizens’ phone calls.

Banning encryption is digital equivalent of banning books

[Commentary] Books have been banned (and burned) precisely because new ideas are a threat to the people in charge. As powerful elites from across the globe prepare to gather for the World Economic Forum, smartphones and electronic tablets linked to the Internet have become the modern equivalents of mass-produced bibles.

United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal to ban encrypted communication -- like China's great Internet firewall and the USA Patriot Act -- could trade freedom for a promise of safety. Internet consumers who care about online privacy and long-term security should fight any proposal to ban encrypted communication.

[John Shinal is a writer for Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and others]

Law enforcement is getting new surveillance tools. But they don’t always want to talk about them.

At least 50 US law enforcement agencies are using hand-held radar to "see" the inside of houses. The radar guns are just the latest in a long line of tech tools being quietly deployed across the country with little public scrutiny, raising questions about how the Fourth Amendment applies in the digital era. The radar uses radio waves to detect even slight movements inside a house.

The version used by the US Marshalls Service -- L-3 Communication's Range-R -- is a handheld device with a range of up to 50 feet, according to the company's promotional materials. Law enforcement agencies started purchasing the devices more than two years ago, according to federal contracts uncovered. But their use was largely kept quiet until a December federal appeals court opinion revealed that officers had used one before entering a house to arrest someone wanted for parole violations. Officers had an arrest warrant, but not a warrant to search the home, alarming even the judges.

A short history of Obama trying (really hard) to look cool online

In 2015, President Barack Obama is taking the post-State of the Union media circus to YouTube. He’s done Reddit AMAs; he’s appeared on Web comedies; he’s smiled for a slew of behind-the-scenes photos and GIFs, all tastefully filtered and posted to Instagram. The Obama White House is on literally every mainstream social network except Myspace; there are people employed at said White House who are paid to turn President Obama’s policies into “shareable” memes. It’s not particularly difficult to see why President Obama tries so hard to maintain this cool-dad persona; it did, after all, win him two elections. But it’s safe to say President Obama’s antics have gotten, well, a bit more aggressive since his first campaign.

US settles case over fake Facebook page

The Justice Department has reached a $134,000 settlement with a New York woman after federal drug agents used information from her cellphone to set up a fake Facebook page in her identity, a tactic that raised privacy concerns and led to a federal government review of the ruse. The government did not admit wrongdoing as part of its settlement with Sondra Arquiett, which comes months after a judge referred both sides into mediation.

NAB, Sinclair Count Ways FCC Auction Methodology Is Wrong

The National Association of Broadcasters and Sinclair have told a federal court that the Federal Communications Commission is bent on ignoring the will of Congress in its rush to reclaim spectrum from TV stations.

"Congress directed the FCC, in repacking broadcasters who retain their spectrum rights in the incentive auction, to ‘make all reasonable efforts to preserve, as of February 22, 2012, the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee, as determined using the methodology described in OET Bulletin.’ Yet the FCC repeatedly treats that unambiguous preservation mandate as an inconvenience to be minimized or ignored in the FCC’s myopic quest to transfer spectrum to wireless companies," they said in reply briefs to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. That was accompanied by a laundry list of problems the broadcasters have with the way the FCC is calculating TV station coverage areas and populations served, as well as the way the FCC defended that decision to the court.

Statement of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on the Passing of Mrs. Martha Wright

I am saddened to hear of the passing of Mrs. Martha Wright -- the grandmother from Washington, D.C. who had the courage to stand up and petition the FCC to change an untenable and unreasonable rate structure for inmate calling services.

She showed the power and ability of one person to make a difference. Mrs. Wright will be dearly missed but her memory will live on as we continue to fight for just, reasonable and fair telephone rates for calls made to and from inmate facilities. I pledge to continue the fight in her honor so that all grandmothers, family members and friends can afford to stay connected with loved ones behind prison walls.

AT&T tries to overturn T-Mobile victory on data roaming prices

One month after T-Mobile US won a declaratory ruling that could force AT&T and Verizon Wireless to charge lower prices for data roaming, AT&T is trying to reverse the decision. The Federal Communications Commission order siding with T-Mobile will create a "hopelessly vague and unpredictable" standard for determining whether roaming prices one carrier charges another are reasonable, AT&T said.

Malvertising: Ads that turn computers into zombies

Malvertising is malicious software, or malware, hidden in online advertisements.

They can be animated ads or banners or pop-ups. In some cases, the user has to click on the ad to be infected with the malicious software. In other cases, simply having it appear in the browser is enough. To fight this, there are several companies that validate that ads are being seen by humans. They include WhiteOps, ComScore, Integral Ad Science, The Media Trust and Double Verify, among others. Businesses can protect themselves by first making sure that all computers in their networks use one of the major browsers and that the browsers are frequently updated. Installing security software is crucial. While it can't stop malvertising from getting into ads, it can ensure that the malware doesn't infect computers in the company network. Finally, if you buy or sell online ads through an agency, make sure they're accredited.

Future of TV, cord cutting still jumbled

[Commentary] It’s clear that the oligarchy of cable and satellite companies controlling content delivery is crumbling, and the days of paying for hundreds of channels are coming to an end.

What’s unclear is whether cord cutters will save money by paying only for the channels they do watch. Will sports be available on demand, or will you have to subscribe to Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and the NFL network so you can watch all the 49ers games? For that matter, providers could charge so much for each network that in the end, a tailored package of a dozen channels could cost as much as what you pay today for hundreds. Now there’s a happy thought.

Benton

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