1. Monthly archive
  2. October 2015

October 2015

Chinese Mobile-Ad Company Apologizes for Code That Allowed Access to Apple User Data

A Chinese mobile-advertising company has apologized for disseminating code that allowed hundreds of applications that run on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system to access users’ personal data, in violation of Apple’s App Store policy. Guangzhou Youmi Mobile Technology offered its “sincere apologies” to affected developers after Apple said it had removed offerings from the App Store that were found to be collecting and extracting email addresses, device identification and other private information.

Republicans to charge media to cover 2016 convention

Representatives for news organizations who plan to cover 2016's convention are protesting a move by the Republican National Committee to charge news media organizations a $150 access fee for seats on the press stand. Seats on risers constructed for newspapers, magazines, wire services and online print publications have been awarded without charge in the past. Representatives for daily and periodical press galleries in the Capitol protested Oct 19 that the media "should not be charged to cover elected officials at an event of enormous interest to the public." The four-day event will be held in Cleveland's (OH) Quicken Loans Arena.

"We are concerned that the proposed fee smacks of forcing the press to pay for news gathering," said Heather Rothman, chairwoman of the Executive Committee of Periodical Correspondents, and Jonathan Salant, chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents. "We urge the (GOP convention committee) to follow the precedent of previous conventions of both parties and drop plans for an access fee so the press can continue to inform the public about a major news event." The RNC says the $150 charge covers a fraction of the $750-per-seat construction cost. In addition to the precedent, the fee could prove burdensome to smaller news organizations. Television networks generally cover the cost of constructing their skyboxes. "There is no access fee," said RNC spokeswoman Alison Moore. "For outlets who prefer a special work station, there will be a minimal charge for construction at a fraction of the actual cost."

Apple tells US judge 'impossible' to unlock new iPhones

Apple told a US judge that accessing data stored on a locked iPhone would be "impossible" with devices using its latest operating system, but the company has the "technical ability" to help law enforcement unlock older phones. Apple's position was laid out in a brief filed late Oct 19, after a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn (NY) sought its input as he weighed a US Justice Department request to force the company to help authorities access a seized iPhone.

In court papers, Apple said that for the 90 percent of its devices running iOS 8 or higher, granting the Justice Department's request "would be impossible to perform" after it strengthened encryption methods. Those devices include a feature that prevents anyone without the device's passcode from accessing its data, including Apple itself. The feature was adopted in 2014 amid heightened privacy concerns following leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA surveillance programs.

Facebook will now tell you if a state government is hacking your account

Facebook will begin notifying users when it suspects a state-affiliated entity has attempted to hack into their account, chief security officer Alex Stamos said on Oct 17. The company implemented this system because attacks from state-affiliated organizations “tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others,” Stamos said. Facebook won’t reveal how it distinguishes between security breaches that originate from the government versus those that come from other hackers. Facebook has chosen a timely moment to announce this feature, from a user point of view. But given the company’s ambitions in China, it is also a somewhat unusual time.

Why China’s insatiable appetite for iPhones could hurt carriers in America

Apple's influence on China is so powerful that it could soon skew the market there for used cell phones -- with a ripple effect for the rest of the cellular industry. There are now so many iPhones being sold in China, Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo said, that it may wind up affecting the prices that resellers are able to get for their second-hand phones. "There is a lot of Apple product hitting in the Chinese market now, where China was one of the larger areas where we sold off used handsets," Shammo said. "So, as these markets get heavily penetrated with newer product, that could impact the residual value of these phones going forward."

Cable Companies Are Experimenting With Metered Data

[Commentary] As of Oct 1, Comcast customers in a few small markets are now subject to metered data use. Households that use more than 300 gigabytes of data per month will have the choice to pay $10 for an extra 50 gigabytes or $30 per month for unlimited service. The cable giant joins the No. 4 player in the industry, Cox Communications, in offering tiers that vary in price depending on data use. Metered data has a bad reputation with many Internet users. Nobody wants to calculate how much streaming a movie or downloading a new video game costs in data charges. But in fact, metered data is good for most consumers and for the Internet.

Broadband networks are composed almost entirely of fixed costs -- costs that don’t vary very much with usage. Cable companies have to spend many billions of dollars to build and maintain their networks whether or not we use them. One way or another, users of the network have to collectively pay those billions of dollars. Metering broadband is an efficient way to expand access and improve speeds for customers of all income levels. Without pricing flexibility for Internet service, we run the risk of shutting our most vulnerable populations off from the many opportunities in our networked world.

[Eli Dourado is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its technology policy program]

Broadband usage caps are probably inefficient

[Commentary] In Slate, Eli Dourado has a post in support of Comcast’s move to cap broadband usage at 300GB per month unless you want to pay $10 for a little more or $30 for unlimited. I have played the "rational economist explains to consumers why a restriction is good for them card" more times than I can count and Dourado has set himself up nicely for a shellacking. While he has a point, I think it is only part of the story and that he is likely on the wrong side of the argument in a historical sense.

The problem is that this logic rests on there being a competitive market and US broadband does not look that competitive to me. While Dourado’s argument still holds for a monopolist, an Internet service provider (ISP) with market power is going to find it worthwhile to squeeze consumers more to get them to pay more. Specifically, the function that relates charges to download limits is going to be much steeper than it would be if there was a pure cost-recovery thing going on. This was the finding in a paper by Economides and Hermalin that took into account the features that Dourado focussed on. Yes, the ISP will install more bandwidth but it will also cap usage more stringently than would be efficient in a social sense.

On Enterprise Broadband, The FCC Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

[Commentary] Back in 2012, I flagged what I saw as a cynical decision by the Federal Communications Commission to take a closer look at the fast-changing market for enterprise broadband services. Such services constitute the middle mile of the Internet, and include dedicated business-to-business access as well as backhaul for mobile networks carrying data from cell towers to the rest of the network. The FCC refers to these services as “special access." Even at the time, there was undisputed evidence of growing middle mile competition from cable and fiber providers offering faster IP-based connections. Still, the FCC bizarrely chose to reimpose price regulations it had long suspended on the rapidly fading part of the market offered by incumbent phone companies and their increasingly obsolete analog networks.

The FCC’s renewed tinkering with the regulated special access market, in other words, is simply prologue for future regulation of new cable and fiber-based competitors, all of it considered and applied at the same leisurely pace we’ve seen since the 2012 order. And why stop at special access? The FCC’s about-face on a decade of decisions to leave the middle mile of the Internet alone won’t just stymie incumbent phone companies eager to retire obsolete analog equipment. Next will be the first mile, the last mile, and every mile in-between. One way or the other, every participant in the Internet ecosystem will feel the hot gaze of the FCC -- or at least the ones the agency is pressured to focus its withering attention on by one set of special interests or another.

[Larry Downes is project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy]

© 1994-2024 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.