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  2. November 2015

November 2015

Encryption is not the enemy

[Commentary] In the wake of the cowardly terrorist attacks in Paris, many politicians, intelligence officials and pundits are predictably calling for a return to discredited policies of the past that would weaken Americans’ security, violate their privacy and do little or nothing to protect us from terrorists. I am standing up against these dangerous proposals to ensure we act based on the facts, not fear, in the days ahead.

Some are calling for the United States to weaken Americans’ cybersecurity by undermining strong encryption with backdoors for the government. But security experts have shown again and again that weakening encryption will make it easier for foreign hackers, criminals and spies to break into Americans’ bank accounts, health records and phones, without preventing terrorists from “going dark.” In 2014, I introduced the Secure Data Act to ban government-mandated backdoors into Americans technology. Strong encryption and sound computer security is the best way to keep Americans’ data safe from hackers and foreign threats.

If Marketing Data Can Fight Terrorism, How Private Is It?

Recent terrorist attacks across the globe could rekindle discussions about data brokers and their roles in government surveillance. Not surprisingly, Acxiom, one of the best-known of the bunch, has been mentioned in such discussion. A recent article suggests that data available from firms such as Acxiom "is also useful for creating profiles of terror suspects and helping investigators find accomplices." When the FBI worked with Acxiom after the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency searched through information that the company received from both public records and the information the company handles for its clients.

Not mentioned in the article, Acxiom stood to profit as a contractor supplying data services as part of a post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security initiative in which the Transportation Services Administration would provide data on passengers and verify their identification by matching it against consumer information stored by Acxiom. The program was fraught with concerns about consumer privacy from the start. JetBlue and Acxiom came under fire in a class action lawsuit for allegedly committing deceptive trade practices. The program was nixed in 2004 and that lawsuit was dismissed in 2005. Whether or not Acxiom or other data purveyors are actually handing over their data to the US or other governments is not clear, but we can expect journalists and watchdogs to continue spotlighting obvious links between the data they gather for marketers and the information coveted by intelligence agencies.

Average taxes on wireless bills in California reach a record 18 percent

The good news: Thanks to increased competition, wireless companies' rates have dropped nearly 7 percent since 2008. The bad news: Average federal, state and local taxes and fees for California customers reached a record 18 percent, meaning that the government's slice of your wireless bill is now at least twice as high as the state sales tax imposed on most other goods and services. For consumers, one troubling element is that these so-called utility user taxes aren't intended to support a municipal service, such as sewer cleaning or garbage collection. They're a tax on a service provided by private companies, which charge their own usage fees.

Even though smartphones have become necessities and a crucial component of the digital economy, they're still taxed in large part as a luxury item. Blame that on the Spanish-American War. In 1898, the federal government imposed a 3 percent excise tax on telephone use to help cover a face-off with Spain over the future of Cuba. Phones were relatively scarce at the time, so the tax was intended to be a levy on wealthy Americans. Uncle Sam didn't get around to doing away with the phone excise tax until 2006 -- more than a century after the United States and Spain decided to call a halt to their five months of skirmishing.

NBC Agrees To Give Time To 4 Republican Candidates

NBC agreed to give four Republican presidential candidates free time on affiliates in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina after they complained Donald Trump unfairly benefited from appearing as "Saturday Night Live" host earlier in Nov. The network said Gov John Kasich (R-OH), Mike Huckabee, James Gilmore and Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) each will get about 12 minutes of time to tout their candidacies during prime time on Nov 27 and 28, and during this week's "Saturday Night Live." Republican George Pataki also had complained, but the network did not announce an agreement with his campaign.

The candidates will get the time on each of the 18 NBC stations in those three states, where early GOP nominating caucuses or primaries are being held. The candidates said they deserved the time to counter Trump's appearance in a non-news setting, based on federal equal time provisions.

Why the media won’t say Donald Trump is lying

[Commentary] When Donald Trump says that he saw "thousands" of Muslims celebrating on the streets of Jersey City (NJ) during the 9/11 attacks, is he lying? The media has taken a lot of flak for not stating that he was. Feel free to peruse the Twitter maelstrom, if you wish, but the essence is simple. Fact-checkers, like our own Glenn Kessler, have found no evidence of anything even close to what Trump claimed. Why, then, can't we simply say he's lying?

The problem that arises is that we can't know his intentionality. There's also the question of exaggeration. In the wake of his comments, defenders of Trump (who are legion) have pointed to other reports of celebrations at different times, in different places and at different scales. If Trump was referring to some other event on another day and at a different scale, was he lying? If he inflated his story to some degree to reinforce his apparent strategy of engendering fear among Republican voters, is that a lie or is it rhetoric?

Valery Galasso Named VP at Marathon Strategies

It did not take Valery Galasso, top media policy advisor to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission, long to land a new gig in the Big Apple. Galasso, whose exit was announced at November's public meeting, to the surprise of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has been named VP for public affairs and public policy at communications and research firm Marathon Strategies in New York. Galasso will provide advice on policy and regulatory issues for the strategic communications firm whose offerings include crisis management and competitive intelligence and whose clients, past and present, have included everyone from the Motion Picture Association of America, DirecTV and IBM, to Planned Parenthood, Yahoo! and Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

CenturyLink, Cogent Strike Interconnection Deal

CenturyLink and Cogent Communications said they have entered into a “long-term, bilateral interconnection agreement” for their respective public IP networks. Financial terms were not revealed, but they said the agreement “allows the exchange of Internet traffic in a balanced, scalable and mutually economical manner to accommodate the growing use of the Internet.”

Time Warner Cable and Cogent announced a similar deal in Oct, which arrived as Charter Communications and TWC look to gain approval of their proposed merger. Interconnection is one of the issues that regulators are being watchful of during the vetting process. Charter has pledged to uphold a settlement-free interconnection policy until the end of 2018, and that it would extend that policy extended to TWC systems, if the deal were approved.

Internet speed: How fast is fast enough?

[Commentary] Much has been made of the apparently woeful average speeds of United States broadband connections. Despite evidence of large absolute increases in average Internet speeds, some advocates are concerned that the US is somehow “falling behind” smaller and more densely-populated countries such as Korea, Latvia, and the Netherlands. This supposed lag has been used to bolster calls for greater federal and municipal investment in local broadband infrastructure, particularly Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks for the 20 percent of residences currently unable to access local networks at speeds meeting the Federal Communications Commission’s definition of broadband (25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream).

The argument is that it is somehow imperative that the US has the fastest Internet connections in the world, and that to deliver anything less is somehow a “failure” that necessitates government intervention. This line of reasoning is problematic for a number of reasons.

[Bronwyn Howell is general manager for the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation]

Federal Trade Commission
February 9, 2016
Seattle, Washington
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/2016/02/start-security-s...
Additional info: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/01/federal-trade-com...

The Federal Trade Commission will host a one-day conference in Seattle on Feb. 9, 2016, on how companies can build security into their products and services. The event will have a particular focus on guidance for startups and early stage businesses about how to make security considerations a part of a company’s culture from the start.

Press release
More info


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