June 2015

Apple encouraging app encryption

Apple is encouraging app developers to employ a layer of security when creating or updating their products. In a document describing new features in Apple’s operating system for iPhones, the company encouraged its developers to use “HTTPS exclusively.” Privacy advocates have been urging universal adoption of the security layer on the Web, which encrypts communications while they are in transit between a user and a website or app. In a browser, the encryption is signified by the HTTPS text and the lock that appears ahead of a web address. “If you have an existing app, you should use HTTPS as much as you can right now, and create a plan for migrating the rest of your app as soon as possible,” according to Apple.

Why Apple is suddenly so obsessed with your privacy

[Commentary] In September 2014, Apple released a long blog post saying essentially the same thing: We are safe custodians of your data. We don’t sell it or try to profit from it. Apple lags behind Google, Facebook, and even Microsoft in the new battle for user attention: Prediction. All of that is changing.

The Apple Watch is essentially Google Now for your wrist. Its purpose is not to replace the phone for interaction, but for notifications and ultra-quick reactions. But Apple, argues Apple, does not pass along your data to third parties or use it to profile you. It only uses it to make your services better. This is a seductive (and also probably reductive) argument, but it strikes at an undenial truth about the internet business in 2015: no company can hope to survive without access to user data. We had better get used to them reading our e-mails and our texts and our Spotify playlists. Some of these firms will use our data to create rich user profiles in order to sell us things. Others focus on creating deep surveillance mechanisms in order to figure out whether we bought the things we’ve been advertised. But a web giant that does not collect user data may as well shut shop and go home. The best we can hope for is that Apple sticks to its principles.

House Communications Subcommittee Strikes DOTCOM Deal

The House Communications Subcommittee has come up with a bipartisan agreement on legislation overseeing the US Government hand-off of oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Internet domain naming functions to a multistakeholder group. The Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act or DOTCOM Act (HR 805), with new bipartisan amendments, "gives Congress a proper oversight role without unnecessarily delaying or undermining the multistakeholder process," said Rep John Shimkus (R-IL), who authored the bill. He said he has always taken a trust and verify approach, and suggested the amended bill would not that. The legislation will be voted on on June 10, according to Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). The new amendments, which are all billed as bipartisan, would:

Require the administration to submit to Congress a report certifying that the transition plans meet the United States’ objective of global Internet openness
Require [National Telecommunications & Information Administration] to certify that changes to [the Internet corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] bylaws that the multistakeholder process has required as conditions of the transition have been implemented
Provide safeguards designed to make ICANN more accountable to the Internet community
Give Congress 30 legislative days to review NTIA’s report before NTIA is permitted to relinquish its role in IANA

US Tech Industry Appeals to President Obama to Keep Hands Off Encryption

Top US tech companies are warning the Obama Administration against imposing new policies that the companies say would weaken increasingly sophisticated encryption systems designed to protect consumers' privacy. In a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama, two industry associations representing major software and hardware companies said, "We are opposed to any policy actions or measures that would undermine encryption as an available and effective tool."

The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association, representing large tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, fired the latest salvo in what could be a long fight over government access into smart phones and other digital devices. The industry letter to President Obama also was sent to FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other Cabinet heads.

Encryption: The next battle between security and privacy

[Commentary] The battle over the National Security Agency metadata program is only the first of what are likely to be a series of clashes over the balance between security and privacy. Looming as the next faceoff is the conflict over encryption and the moves by a number of US technology companies to protect their customers against hackers, whether private or public.

In the US, the current skirmish was precipitated by announcements from Apple and Google that they were installing encryption protection in their cellphones that would allow only users -- and no outside individual or public official -- to unblock the devices. Text messaging services such as WhatsApp and iMessage have followed suit.

[Claude Barfield is a former consultant to the office of the US Trade Representative]

White House Orders All Federal Sites Go HTTPS By The End Of 2016

In a bid to close potential vulnerabilities in the government's Web presence, the White House is mandating every public federal website switch to a more secure Internet connection standard by 2016. The connection technology, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, provides site visitors more privacy and confidence they are looking at official government websites. The secure protocol also prevents a lot of Web surfing behavior from being watched or toyed with. Come Dec. 31, 2016, every public federal site must be protected with HTTPS.

Today, most of the federal government's roughly 1,200 websites use HTTP technology, which exposes website content, browser format, search terms and other user information to eavesdroppers. Anyone observing the network, including an employer or Internet service provider, can see what topics a computer user is interested in. Or instead of just watching traffic, the interloper could redirect the user to fraudulent content. The White House rule will eliminate the burden of deciding what Web content is sensitive enough to merit HTTPS protection and ensure stronger privacy governmentwide.

The US Government -- and the Next President -- Needs to Take Cybersecurity Seriously

[Commentary] In the face of increasingly dangerous cyberattacks, it is imperative that we overcome gridlock in Washington. Cyberattacks threaten not just Americans’ privacy, personal credit information, and intellectual property but also military operations and national security intelligence. A new agenda is urgently needed to improve our nation’s cybersecurity.

First, unlike the military’s command-and-control approach to past defense challenges, this new threat will require a collaborative and networked approach across public and private sectors. Second, greater security requires greater investment. Investing more resources in cybersecurity is an economic and national security priority. Third, we need to understand that every segment of government has a role to play. Maryland’s record of achievement on cybersecurity issues provides a path forward for the nation. Our digital information and networks are critical to our economic might and national security. We should treat them like the precious resources that they are.

[Martin O’Malley is the former governor of Maryland and a Democratic candidate for president of the United States]

Former Rep Waxman lobbying for T-Mobile

Former Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) is now a registered lobbyist for T-Mobile and four other groups. The former House Commerce Committee Ranking Democratic Representative will lobby for the mobile phone company on laws and regulations related to the wireless industry as well as the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming incentive auction, according to disclosures filed.

He also registered to lobby for four other groups related to the healthcare industry and service employees, including 340B Health, the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, the California State Council of Service Employees and the National Association of Community Health Centers. The registrations came through Waxman Strategies, where he serves as chairman. His son, Michael Waxman, is also listed on the lobbying registration disclosures. The former Democratic lawmaker, who retired in 2014 after serving 40 years in Congress, is barred from lobbying his former colleagues in the House for one year after retirement. He is able, however, to lobby the executive branch and the Senate.

Why TV Is Still the Most Effective Advertising Medium

According to a new study Turner Broadcasting and Horizon Media partnered on with marketing-analytics company MarketShare, which meta-analyzed thousands of marketing optimization used by major advertisers from 2009 to 2014, TV is still by far the most effective advertising medium. MarketShare's analysis found that TV advertising effectiveness has remained steady during that time period and outperforms digital and offline channels at driving key performance metrics like sales and new accounts. The study also showed that networks' premium digital video delivered higher than average returns when compared with short-form video content from nonpremium publishers. Among the study's key findings:

MarketShare analyzed advertising performance across industry and media outlets like television, online display, paid search, print and radio advertising and found that TV has the highest efficiency at achieving key performance indicators, or KPIs, like sales and new accounts. When comparing performance at similar spending levels, TV averaged four times the sales lift of digital.
TV has maintained its effectiveness at driving advertiser KPIs over the last five years. In a study using data from a luxury automaker, TV was the only medium to maintain its effectiveness (a 1.5 percent decrease in five years) while the other advertising media -- both online and offline -- declined more than 10 percent.
TV marketers can optimize their spend by leveraging data sources, including high-frequency consumer interactions like website visits and inbound calls, to improve TV advertising performance.
Premium online video from broadcast and cable networks out-performs video content from other publishers.

Wireless carriers sue to block cell phone radiation warning requirement

The biggest wireless industry trade group is suing the City of Berkeley (CA) to stop a requirement that cell phones come with radiation warnings. The Berkeley City Council in May passed an ordinance requiring cell phone retailers to provide a notice to all customers who buy or lease phones. CTIA- The Wireless Association, which represents carriers and suppliers, sued in US District Court on June 8, saying the "required disclosure... impermissibly abridges CTIA’s members’ First Amendment rights," that it is "preempted by federal law," and that there is no scientific basis for the warning.

The CTIA wrote, "The [Federal Communications Commission] has determined, consistent with the overwhelming consensus of scientific authority, that '[t]here is no scientific evidence that proves that wireless phone usage can lead to cancer or a variety of other problems, including headaches, dizziness or memory loss.'"

Benton

Search