November 2015

The use of "stingrays" that capture data about cell phone calls has become increasingly controversial, but law enforcement agencies continue to embrace the devices. On Nov 2, Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has said he'll introduce a bill that will criminalize any use of a stingray without a warrant. Violations would be punishable by a fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The text of the draft isn't public yet, but apparently it includes wide exemptions, including for situations involving "emergencies that include an 'immediate danger of death,' national security or ... the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." Rep Chaffetz's bill would apply to state and local agencies as well as federal ones. The American Civil Liberties Union has identified 57 agencies that own stingrays or similar devices in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

Google owner Alphabet accused European Union regulators of making an unexplained about-face in their decision to file antitrust charges against the US search company, and warned that there was “no basis” for imposing fines. The response, which runs to almost 130 pages and leans heavily on legal opinions and case law, suggests that Google is gearing up for a protracted legal battle against the charges brought by the European Commission.

“The theory on which the [EU’s] preliminary conclusions rest is so ambiguous that the Commission itself concluded three times that the concern had been resolved,” Google’s lawyers wrote in the document. The document was recently sent to complainants in the case following heavy editing to remove commercially sensitive material. The EU’s demands, Google argues, amount “to a demand that we sacrifice quality to subsidize competitors.”

If ballot question 3A passes, Boulder (CO) Valley School District (BVSD) would attempt to earn revenue and expand Internet access. Thanks to a state law passed in 2005 (SB-152), which restricts local governments from competing with broadband providers, BVSD must get permission from voters before leveraging its own fiber optic network’s excess capacity. Voters face a question with a fairly obvious answer: Should schools keep innovating?

“We are working hard to try to get the equivalent of a printing press into everyone’s backpack,” says Andrew Moore, chief information officer at BVSD. “If you’ve got a digital device -- a Chromebook, a laptop, an iPad -- in your backpack, it is the gateway.” A member of the superintendent’s cabinet, Moore supports professional development for teachers using educational technology in classrooms and leads a dozen technicians who manage networks, phone systems and traditional IT services across the district’s 55 schools. He says BVSD has over 100 miles of fiber capacity in the ground, including unused “dark” fiber. But the district can’t offer new broadband services unless voters override SB-152. “We’re restricted from leasing fiber to private entities, and we’re restricted from providing Internet services,” Moore says. “So we really followed the City of Boulder’s lead.”