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  2. October 2015

October 2015

Time Warner Cable promises to stop acting like a cable company

Time Warner Cable has a reputation for providing bad customer service, which isn't unusual for a cable company. But TWC promised to fix its shortcomings in an open letter to customers published in major newspapers.

"We get it. We know how you feel about cable companies. We’ve seen where Time Warner Cable falls on customer satisfaction surveys and we know the 'cable guy' jokes by heart," the company said. TWC on Oct 5 reprinted the letter on the company blog and issued a press release describing some of the improvements it has made and plans to make. "We hear you loud and clear. We’re changing," the press release said.

Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development
Co-sponsored by the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences
October 14-16, 2015
http://www.childrenandscreens.org/#!2015-nas-sackler-conference/c1scg

The purpose of this colloquium is to gather scientists, clinicians, and scholars in an interdisciplinary arena to share and discuss recent developments across the field of digital media and child development. This event will provide an opportunity for medical researchers, social scientists, and other active-interest professionals, such as educators, government representatives, and early childhood experts to hear from each other as they cross-examine and compare research findings.

Prominent researchers will report on recent studies that examine the impact of digital media on children's minds, brains, and behavior as well as on their social, emotional, physical development at critical stages: infants and toddlers, early childhood, tweens and teens will be considered. Among these researchers are Stanford University's Melina Uncapher, Ph.D. and Anthony Wagner, Ph.D., who will summarize research discoveries regarding media multitasking. Dr. Uncapher says, "The Sackler conference constitutes a global convening of field-leading scientists to discuss an increasingly urgent issue: the impact of technology and media on the developing mind. Kudos to the National Academy of Sciences and Children and Screens: the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development for leading this important field-building effort that promises to galvanize research efforts across multiple disciplines and methods. This represents an important next step in empowering parents, educators, and policymakers in understanding what is a healthy media diet."


FCC Reconsideration of Lifeline Change

The Federal Communications Commission reopened the comment periods for oppositions and replies to oppositions to CTIA—The Wireless Association (CTIA)’s Petition for Partial Reconsideration of the FCC’s Order on Reconsideration requiring Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) to retain documentation demonstrating subscriber eligibility for the Lifeline Program. Oppositions are now due on October 8, 2015, and the deadline to file replies to oppositions is reopened and will close on October 19, 2015.

The TPP has a provision many will love to hate: ISDS. What is it, and why does it matter?

[Commentary] One sticking point AS Congress considers the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be the agreement’s chapter on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Under these rules, foreign investors can legally challenge host state regulations outside that country’s courts. While the United States has never lost a case, U.S. corporations have won many of their complaints against foreign governments. The system is unusual in international law. Most international courts only allow disputes between states.

ISDS, in contrast, creates one-way rights: Corporations can sue governments, but not vice versa. As TPP moves toward Congress, both sides will attempt to revive the ISDS issue. The White House will attempt to argue that new provisions (like a code of conduct for ISDS arbitrators) make enough of a difference to assuage critics’ concerns. TPP opponents, on the other hand, will have to argue why this deal is singularly problematic when there are already 3,200-plus treaties around the globe that already contain similar investor rights. Investors have numerous moves at their disposal because of creeping multilateralism. Nationality shopping, relief shopping, forum shopping, enforcement shopping: Investors can “shop until they drop,” and nations must pay the bill.

[Tucker is Gates Scholar at Cambridge University]

Invitation to Demonstrate Security Platforms for the Domain Name System-Based Security (DNS) for Electronic Mail Building Block

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Domain Name System-Based (DNS) Security for Electronic Mail Building Block. This notice is the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in collaborating with technology companies to address cybersecurity challenges identified under the Domain Name System-Based Security for Electronic Mail Building Block. Participation in this building block is open to all interested organizations.

Verizon’s Zombie Cookie Gets New Life

Verizon is giving a new mission to its controversial hidden identifier that tracks users of mobile devices. Verizon said in a little-noticed announcement that it will soon begin sharing the profiles with AOL’s ad network, which in turn monitors users across a large swath of the Internet. That means AOL’s ad network will be able to match millions of Internet users to their real-world details gathered by Verizon, including -- “your gender, age range and interests.” AOL’s network is on 40 percent of websites. AOL will also be able to use data from Verizon’s identifier to track the apps that mobile users open, what sites they visit, and for how long. Verizon purchased AOL earlier in 2015.

Privacy advocates say that Verizon and AOL’s use of the identifier is problematic for two reasons: Not only is the invasive tracking enabled by default, but it also sends the information unencrypted, so that it can easily be intercepted. Verizon, which has 135 million wireless customers, says it is will share the identifier with “a very limited number of other partners and they will only be able to use it for Verizon and AOL purposes,” said Karen Zacharia, chief privacy officer at Verizon.

The FCC has turned down one of the first business complaints under net neutrality

One of the first businesses to invoke the government's network neutrality rules against an Internet provider has just lost his bid for federal intervention. Commercial Network Services, a San Diego (CA)-based company that uses a series of Web cams to broadcast live images of the city to remote viewers, told the Federal Communications Commission in June that Time Warner Cable was hindering its ability to reach consumers with its video traffic.

CNS's chief executive, Barry Bahrami, argued that Time Warner Cable was demanding an unacceptable toll to transport the video traffic to viewers' computers and mobile devices, even as other Internet providers were carrying that content for free. But legal experts cast doubts on Bahrami's complaint because the net neutrality rules don't explicitly prohibit companies from negotiating private carriage agreements for so-called "interconnection." They merely give the FCC the ability to probe deals that it finds suspicious and potentially anticompetitive. All that culminated recently in an e-mailed note from the FCC to CNS, according to Bahrami, explaining that "we regret that you were not satisfied with attempts by FCC staff to facilitate a more satisfactory resolution." Despite the apparent rejection, CNS is considering escalating the issue as a formal legal complaint.

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