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  2. October 2015

October 2015

Hacking the Capitol: All the Ways Tech Can Help Congress Work Smarter

A platform that would allow the public to contribute to congressional hearings in real-time. A track-changes type of tool that could show each and every change lawmakers make to a bill during the legislative process. A digital petition system for each congressional district. The second Congressional Hackathon, held Oct. 23 at the Capitol, produced some big, creative ideas and even some prototypes -- all designed to leverage technology to improve the way Congress works. The bipartisan event was hosted by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, (R-CA), and Minority Whip Rep Steny Hoyer (D-MD). In addition to members of Congress and their staff, about 200 people attended the event, including open government and transparency advocates and software engineers.

Internet governance: What could go wrong?

[Commentary] In mid-December, the United Nations General Assembly will meet in New York for two days to discuss the future of Internet governance. A group of countries led by China and Russia is arguing that oversight of the Internet should move from the current “multi-stakeholder” model to a more centralized, government-centric approach managed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Should you be worried? Yes, but not in the way you might think. The risk here lies not so much in the threat of a dramatic UN-takeover of the Internet, but rather in the fact that UN-style bureaucratic paralysis is already forestalling effective action to limit commercial hacking, preserve Internet freedom and identify and prevent potential terrorist threats to critical infrastructure. The main threat is not in what is happening with Internet governance, but rather what is not.

Rather than leading on these issues, the US and its allies appear to be bogged down in a diplomatic rear-guard action focused on arcane institutional issues -- fiddling while cyberspace burns. Until that changes, the risks associated with cybersecurity will continue to grow.

[Eisenach has served in senior positions at the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of Management and Budget, and currently is an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law]

European Parliament rejects amendments protecting net neutrality

The European Union has rejected legal amendments that would firmly protect the concept of network neutrality in Europe. The European Parliament voted in favor of new regulations which proponents say establish an Internet "without discrimination," but advocates for net neutrality say the laws contain a number of loopholes which could lead to the creation of a tiered Internet service. The legislation also includes an end to roaming charges in Europe, although some critics say those laws are also less robust than they appear. The new legislation allows the creation of Internet fast lanes for "specialized services" and lets Internet service providers (ISPs) offer so-called "zero-rating" products -- i.e. apps and services that don't count toward monthly data allowances -- without restrictions.

Critics of the legislation say that the latter loophole will allow big Internet companies to favor certain services in commercial deals. Critics of the legislation have noted that fatigue among legislators and keenness to end roaming charges may have contributed to its largely unchallenged adoption. Now that the legislation has been approved by the European Parliament, the Body of European Regulators has nine months to pass on guidelines to individual nations.

Why Europe’s net neutrality plan is more controversial than US rules

[Commentary] There are many similarities in network neutrality rules between the US and the European Union. But, the US rules were widely acclaimed by net neutrality advocates, while the EU proposal is being heavily criticized by advocates, tech companies such as reddit and BitTorrent, and World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Why is that? Let’s examine the four major parts of the EU proposal that net neutrality advocates are trying to change and compare these to the US rules:

“Fast lanes” and specialized services: The EU proposal doesn’t require separate capacity for specialized services and general Internet access. Instead, EU Internet service providers (ISPs) would be required to provide enough capacity so that specialized services can be offered without slowing down general Internet access.

Zero-rating: Whereas the “FCC rule makes potentially all cases subject to regulation,” there would likely be very limited circumstances in which a zero-rating practice in Europe would be stopped, according to Stanford Center for Internet and Society Director Barbara van Schewick.

“Classes” of Internet applications: While the EU proposal instructs Internet providers to “treat all traffic equally,” it also lets providers implement “reasonable traffic management measures” based upon the “different technical quality of service requirements of specific categories of traffic.” In short, ISPs would be allowed to treat one type of application (say, online gaming) different from another (such as file sharing or voice).

Impending congestion: The EU’s proposal lets ISPs take into account “impending network congestion.” That means ISPs could impose network management practices if congestion is “about to materialize” rather than when it actually occurs.

Europe puts an end to mobile roaming charges

The European Parliament passed a law that will put an end to mobile roaming fees by 2017. The law was approved as part of a larger legislative package that also sought to strengthen network neutrality protections across the European Union, but which failed to close major loopholes that could be exploited to create Internet "fast lanes." The ban on roaming charges enjoyed broad support within the European Parliament, and was widely expected to pass. Under the measure, it will be illegal for telecommunication companies to charge roaming fees for calls, text messages, and data as of June 15th, 2017. Consumers will instead pay the same rates they would in their home countries. As of April 30th, 2016, roaming charges will be capped at €0.05 per minute for outgoing calls, €0.02 for texts, and €0.05 for every megabyte of data. A cap for incoming calls will be determined at a later date.

European tech companies create new EU lobbying group, headed by Skype co-founder

Oct 27 saw the launch of European Tech Alliance, which aims to represent Europe’s technology ‘scale-ups’ to influence policymaking at European Union governments and institutions. Headed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, now the founder and CEO of VC firm Atomico, the brand new lobbying group intends to “share their experience of building their businesses in Europe with policymakers” and “contribute to the Commission’s Digital Single Market strategy“.

The European tech companies that are backing the new association include King, Spotify, Rovio, BlaBlaCar, AVG, Made.com, Supercell, SwiftKey, Klarna and The Allegro Group. European Tech Alliance president Zennström says. “We have formed an alliance to share our collective experience with policymakers and challenge mindsets about Europe, technology, and the Internet. There are so many European tech company success stories. We think we will be able to help European leaders understand that Europe is good at tech and show how policymakers can clear the way for the tech industry to grow further.”

Judge Questions Legal Authority To Force Apple To Unlock iPhones

US Magistrate Judge James Orenstein raised concerns at a Brooklyn federal court hearing on Oct 26 about how much legal authority the government has to compel Apple to unlock a criminal suspect’s iPhone and access the user’s data. In this case, Apple is contesting a search warrant from federal prosecutors to unlock an iPhone 5s that belonged to Jun Feng, a defendant in a meth conspiracy case who is scheduled to go on trial in the coming weeks. Feng has pleaded not guilty. The iPhone’s passcode made it impossible for Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to access the phone’s contents, and only Apple has the capability to bypass the passcode without destroying the data within, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors from the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office say they have the authority to force Apple’s compliance under the All Writs Act, which dates back to 1789 and gives courts broad authority to carry out their duties. Since Congress has not explicitly banned the government from seeking this type of help from tech companies, it’s fair game under the law, prosecutors said. However, Judge Orenstein took issue with that reasoning, questioning how far the government can stretch the All Writs Act. He expressed concerns about how this could impact the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches if judges can make determinations on emerging areas of law that haven’t been fully debated in Congress.

Slowly but surely, government IT enters the 21st century

Government IT departments have a mostly deserved reputation for being behind the times. While private companies keep giving customers new and better ways to buy products and learn about their services, government agencies have generally made it difficult for residents to interact with them via the Internet. But this is slowly changing, with agencies from the local level to the federal level focusing on fixing broken websites and building new tools for Americans to get what they need from the government.

In Detroit (MI), the city government released a mobile app that lets people report problems from illegal dumping sites and abandoned vehicles to potholes and water main breaks, resulting in about 10,000 problems being fixed in six months. In Oakland (CA) the city government unveiled a website that makes it far easier to access public records, and it plans to help other cities make similar improvements. In Washington (DC) the Federal Communications Commission overhauled an ancient IT infrastructure and designed a website that makes it easier for residents to file complaints against cable companies and telecommunication companies. While there’s still a long way to go, these changes are steadily making it more convenient to access public services.

Like It Or Not, Political Campaigns Are Using Facebook To Target You

Some of the most important real estate in presidential politics is actually right in front of your nose. Or under your thumbs -- it really depends on how you log onto Facebook. The social network is now a key place for campaigns to advertise. One reason for that: It's getting easier and easier for campaigns to target those ads to very specific, tailor-made audiences.

"This is our hub of communication," explained Ken Dawson, who heads digital strategies for Ben Carson's presidential campaign. "We really see it as the heart of our campaign." Carson's Facebook page has more than 4 million followers, more than any other presidential campaign. It's a constant stream of posts, videos and chats with the candidate. Aside from that never-ending flow of content, the campaign is running scores and scores of advertisements that appear in Facebook users' news feeds. In mid-October, the campaign was juggling 240 different advertisements. Nearly every single one was targeted to a different subset of voters.

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