1. Monthly archive
  2. November 2015

November 2015

Global Support for Principle of Free Expression, but Opposition to Some Forms of Speech

Although many observers have documented a global decline in democratic rights in recent years, people around the world nonetheless embrace fundamental democratic values, including free expression. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that majorities in nearly all 38 nations polled say it is at least somewhat important to live in a country with free speech, a free press and freedom on the Internet. And across the 38 countries, global medians of 50 percent or more consider these freedoms very important.

Still, ideas about free expression vary widely across regions and nations. The United States stands out for its especially strong opposition to government censorship, as do countries in Latin America and Europe – particularly Argentina, Germany, Spain and Chile. Majorities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East also tend to oppose censorship, albeit with much less intensity. Indonesians, Palestinians, Burkinabe and Vietnamese are among the least likely to say free expression is very important. Even though Internet freedom ranks last among the six broad democratic rights included on the survey, majorities in 32 of 38 countries nonetheless say it is important to live in a country where people can use the Internet without government censorship. Across the 38 nations, a median of 50 percent believe it is very important to live in a country with an uncensored Internet.

Comcast States Lifeline Broadband Providers Should Support Digital Literacy

Comcast is encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to require Lifeline broadband providers to support digital literacy training. We say Hurray! To substantially increase broadband adoption, we must address both cost and digital literacy. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance encourages Lifeline broadband providers to partner with community-based organizations and libraries who have digital literacy expertise and the trust of low-income community members. Comcast made their statement regarding the necessity of training in ex-parte comments to the FCC (which means they documented a verbal conversation with FCC staff members).

The final paragraph reads, "In light of the research, we discussed that the Commission should promote the development of comprehensive broadband adoption programs. We further discussed that a way to do this would be to include in Lifeline reform a requirement that broadband providers accepting Lifeline support implement digital literacy and relevance training programs...We also discussed that the Commission could track digital literacy and relevance training initiatives by having providers submit information regarding their training programs on an annual basis." And lastly, wow, it would be great to know how Lifeline broadband providers are supporting training programs. We also encourage the FCC to require providers to submit publicly available information regarding training programs.

X-Lab announces cybersecurity and surveillance expert Marcy Wheeler as Fellow

X-Lab is pleased to announce cybersecurity policy and surveillance expert, Marcy Wheeler, as the program’s newest Fellow. Wheeler’s analyses have been instrumental in forwarding public understanding of the far-reaching US spying programs and practices. Wheeler is also an independent journalist whose work has focused on national security and civil liberties, with her critiques garnering wide-spread support in the aftermath of the 2013 Snowden revelations. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, Salon, The Intercept, Vice News, Al Jazeera America, and countless other print, radio, and television outlets. Wheeler is the winner of the 2009 Hillman Award for blog journalism, a 2008 Project Censored award for reporting on the Bush Administration’s surveillance under Executive Order 12333, and author of the book, "Anatomy of Deceit" on the CIA leak scandal.

Her blog, EmptyWheel, has proven remarkably prescient -- being amongst the first outlets to raise questions about back door searches under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments (FISA) Act in 2008, and to sound the alarm about bulk collection under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act in 2009. Her work has often proven to be years ahead of the curve, with critiques that have been avidly attacked and denied by DC-insiders, only to be confirmed by Edward Snowden and other leaks. Wheeler has a PhD from University of Michigan.

Internet pioneer Wally Bowen dies

Asheville (NC) media advocate Wally Bowen -- who helped bring Asheville into the Internet age in 1996 in a time when when the service was still very new and little known -- died after a struggle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 63.

Bowen started both the non-profit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) and its sister operation, the low-powered Asheville FM radio station WPVM. He used the services to connect the community through local voices. His work was known nationally and most recently, he was given the Donald H. McGannon Award from the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ for his work in building MAIN. Bowen remained active to the end of his life, said his longtime friend Monroe Gilmour, who accepted the McGannon Award on his behalf. "His mind was still totally engaged and sharp as anyone’s," Gilmour said. Lou Gehrig's Disease left him without movement or the ability to speak, but he was able to stay online, said his partner Carla Seidl. "He was extremely open, always reaching out, always positive, seeking new connections, building things," she said.

Automakers to Congress: Stay away from the ‘Internet of cars’

Major vehicle manufacturers are telling Congress to keep its distance as the industry evolves to take advantage of the “Internet of cars.” Representatives of Toyota, Tesla and GM are scheduled to testify before a House Oversight subcommittee on Nov 18, when they will tout the safety and comfort benefits of increasingly connected cars in prepared testimony. Their plea for limited government intervention comes after the recall of 1.4 million Chrysler vehicles earlier in 2015 when researchers found a flaw that allowed them to remotely hack into the vehicles.

“Regulation at a time of rapid innovation runs the risk of limiting the realization of the full extent of safety advances,” Tesla’s head of business development Diarmuid O’Connell will say. Increased regulation should be avoided unless “absolutely necessary,” he will say. O’Connell said the Chrysler vulnerability could have been avoided if manufacturers ensured that their vehicles were not directly connected across the Internet. He also said connected cars must isolate their mechanical systems, such as braking, and make sure to use encryption technology to protect privacy of information transferred to and from vehicles.

Manhattan District Attorney demands Congress require mobile phone backdoors

Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan (NY) district attorney and an outspoken critic of encryption, called on Congress to adopt legislation mandating that mobile phone makers like Apple and Google bake backdoors into their smartphones. Vance said it is "government's principal responsibility to keep its residents safe, and that a government cannot fulfill that responsibility if huge amounts of vital information directly related to public safety are inaccessible to the government." The district attorney's proposal provided data saying that in a span of 12 months ending in October, as many as 111 prosecutions in his office for a variety of crimes like homicide, attempted murder, sexual abuse of a child, sex trafficking, assault, and robbery were hindered because of encrypted mobile phones connected to the cases. He also cited a litany of prosecutions in which evidence obtained from mobile phones helped solve the same types of cases.

"The federal legislation would provide in substance that any smartphone manufactured, leased, or sold in the US must be able to be unlocked, or its data accessed, by the operating system designer. Compliance with such a statute would not require new technology or costly adjustments. It would require, simply, that designers and makers of operating systems not design or build them to be impregnable to lawful governmental searches," according to Vance's position paper on the topic.

Google can now stream apps to your phone, search more mobile app content

Google's search results have included information from inside of apps for a couple years now, but Google has only ever been able to show those results if you have the app installed or if the app has a website, too. But now Google has another way: stream the entire app to your phone. Google announced that it's beginning to test a feature that will stream apps to Android phones when someone finds a result from them through Search. If you're searching for hotel bookings, for instance, a search result from HotelTonight might appear. Because HotelTonight doesn't let you book through its website, Google will stream the HotelTonight app, allowing you to tap through it to explore listings and make a booking. Streaming HotelTonight went smoothly in a brief test, although it responded a bit slower than a native app. Google says it's planning to expand the program; it's an important initiative -- Google Search is a critical tool for the web, but apps, which increasingly hold information that isn't available elsewhere, haven't been as visible to Google.

Google is looking to maintain its search hegemony as users shift en masse to mobile devices. Instead of crawling the Web to give consumers answers to search queries, Google must increasingly navigate apps where users spend the bulk of their time.

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