September 2015

Phone Industry To The Poor: “No Privacy For You!”

[Commentary] The wireless industry trade association, CTIA, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to declare that poor people applying for Lifeline have no enforceable privacy protections when they provide things like their social security number, home address, full name, date of birth, and anything else an identity thief would need to make your life miserable. Meanwhile, US Telecom Association, the trade association for landline carriers, has actually sued the FCC for the right to behave utterly irresponsibly with any information poor people turn over about themselves — including the right to sell that information to 3rd parties.

Not that the wireless carriers would ever want to do anything like that, of course! As CTIA, USTA, and all their members constantly assure us, protecting customer privacy is a number one priority. Unless, of course, we’re running some secret experiments on tracking without notifying customers that accidentally expose customer information to third parties. Oh, and it might take longer than promised to actually let you opt out once you discover it. And in our lawsuit against the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, we explicitly cite our inability to use customer information for marketing, the inability to sell this information to third parties, and the requirement to protect this information generally as one of the biggest burdens of classifying broadband as Title II. But other than that, there is no reason to think that CTIA’s members or USTA’s members would fail to respect and protect your privacy. So how did the Lifeline Reform Order which most people assumed was all about expanding Lifeline to broadband became the vehicle for the phone industry to tell poor people they have no privacy protections when they apply for a federal aid program?

What Silicon Valley can learn from Comcast when it comes to diversity

What does Comcast’s David Cohen, the highest-ranking corporate diversity officer in America, think Silicon Valley firms should do to increase their workforce diversity? Set big goals and be unabashed about getting there.

In the next five to 10 years, Cohen said, the firm aims for 50 percent of its leadership to be women and 33 percent "people of color." The same goals apply for the entire workforce. "The only way to move the needle is to overindex on who you hire," said Cohen. If you are male and white, you have the "lowest chance of becoming vice president and above in the next four years."

President ‘Heartbroken’ Over Death of Adviser Jake Brewer

President Barack Obama said that he was “heartbroken” at the death of a technology policy adviser, Jake Brewer, who was killed in a cycling accident while participating in a charity ride to raise money for cancer research.

Brewer had only recently begun work at the White House. Since June, he had led initiatives to expand access to job opportunities in the technology sector and widen the availability of broadband connectivity. Brewer previously led global policy and external affairs at Change.org, the online petition website. He had also worked on a number of initiatives that sought to use technology to solve societal problems.

France Rejects Google’s Efforts to Limit Application of Privacy Ruling

France’s privacy watchdog just will not take no for an answer. The country’s data protection authority rejected Google’s efforts to limit how the landmark European “so-called right to be forgotten” ruling may be applied worldwide.

The country’s data protection agency said that limiting the privacy decision to just domains in Europe could be easily bypassed by individuals based in the 28-member European Union, which would nullify the court’s privacy ruling. The watchdog also said that once Google had agreed to remove the links, the company was required to apply the decision across all of its domains, not just those in Europe. The regulator rejected an assertion by Google that it was trying to extend French control over how people around the world retrieve online information. “Contrary to what Google has stated, this decision does not show any willingness on the part of the CNIL to apply French law extraterritorially,” the agency said. “It simply requests full observance of European legislation by non-European players offering their services in Europe.” The watchdog said that Google must now apply the privacy decision to its global domains or face fines that could total as much as $340,000.

EU’s Internet Rules Don’t Discriminate Against US, Says Digital Chief

The European Union has no intention of discriminating against US technology giants like Google and Facebook when designing its regulatory framework for online platforms, the EU’s digital chief said.

“I’m still certain that we’ll find rules [for platforms] that don’t smell of protection and discrimination, but are reasonable for European, American and for Asian players,” Günther Oettinger, the EU commissioner in charge of digital affairs, said in a telephone interview ahead of a trip to the US that kicks off Sept 22. There, in meetings with Silicon Valley executives—including Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg and Google’s new chief executive, Sundar Pichai—as well as government officials in Washington, Oettinger will try to dispel concerns that coming legislative proposals are being designed to disadvantage American companies.

US and China Seek Arms Deal for Cyberspace

The United States and China are negotiating what could become the first arms control accord for cyberspace, embracing a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyberweapons to cripple the other’s critical infrastructure during peacetime, according to officials involved in the talks.

While such an agreement could address attacks on power stations, banking systems, cellphone networks and hospitals, it would not, at least in its first version, protect against most of the attacks that China has been accused of conducting in the United States, including the widespread poaching of intellectual property and the theft of millions of government employees’ personal data. The negotiations have been conducted with urgency in recent weeks, with a goal to announce an agreement when President Xi Jinping of China arrives in Washington for a state visit on Sept 24.

Internet Management: Structured Evaluation Could Help ICANN Transition

The Government Accountability Office was asked to review implications of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) proposed transition of its oversight of the coordination of certain key Internet technical functions (such as the domain name system) to the global multistakeholder community.

This report examines: (1) the process of developing a transition proposal and addressing identified transition risks, and (2) NTIA's plans to evaluate a proposal. GAO reviewed NTIA's evaluation plans and identified frameworks for NTIA to use in its evaluation; reviewed transition documents; and interviewed officials from NTIA, other federal agencies assisting NTIA with the proposed transition, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as well as stakeholders selected based on their technical, commercial, and academic backgrounds. GAO recommends that NTIA review relevant frameworks for evaluation and use applicable portions to help evaluate the transition proposal. The Department of Commerce concurred with the recommendation.

President Obama is now letting US telecom carriers go to Cuba

As part of Washington's normalization with Cuba, the Treasury Department is relaxing more of its sanctions against the small island nation. Now, more Americans will be able to travel to Cuba, and it'll be easier to send money and set up bank accounts there. But the change in policy also lays the groundwork for a much more substantial transformation of Cuban culture and politics.

You see, the Obama Administration isn't just opening up diplomatic relations. By loosening its telecommunications restrictions, Washington is also making it possible, for the first time, for US telecommunication and Internet providers to enter Cuba in a meaningful way. U..telecommunication companies will be allowed to set up shop in Cuba, partner with Cuban entities, and enter into licensing agreements with them to provide the country with connectivity. What's more, Americans will be allowed to hire Cuban software developers and bring their mobile apps into the United States. This is a huge deal. US venture capitalists consider Cuba a fantastic investment that's just waiting to flourish. Cuban-designed apps could help facilitate interactions between family members an ocean apart, for instance, or put add momentum to the country's own, local economy.

Human Rights Watch presses tech leaders ahead of China meetings

Human Rights Watch is asking US technology executives to press Chinese President Xi Jinping about the country’s censorship, surveillance and data collection during meetings the week of Sept 21.

Kenneth Roth, the head of the advocacy group, sent letters to the heads of major technology companies, asking that they at least publicly commit “not to enable government abuses of freedom of expression and privacy in China.” “Your firms’ robust criticisms of the US government’s mass surveillance practices set a standard that you should not lower for China,” Roth wrote in a letter to the heads of Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Facebook and Uber.

Maryland Officials Ask FCC to Clarify OTT Point

A group of Maryland county cable regulatory officials met with the legal advisors to all the commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission and the chief of the Media Bureau to argue that cable operators can't have it both ways when it comes to redefining over-the-top (OTT) video, and that the FCC should "subject" (their term) OTTs to the same regulatory and statutory obligations as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs, or pay-TV providers).

The FCC has proposed to apply carriage and access obligations to linear OTTs but has asked whether other obligations -- PEG and leased access, for example, should also apply. The county officials wanted the FCC to know they thought it had plenty of authority to define OTT providers of linear service as MVPDs, and that it could lead to increased competition and choice, so long as they were subject to all the same rights and responsibilities.

Benton

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