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  2. December 2015

December 2015

Connecting the Pieces to Prepare America’s Schools for 21st Century Learning

[Commentary] In June 2013, President Barack Obama called on government and private sector leaders to close the Internet connectivity gap in our schools and libraries. At that time, thanks in large part to the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program  —  the nation’s largest education technology program — nearly all schools and libraries already had Internet access, but too many had insufficient bandwidth. The speed may have been enough for a typical American household, but it was inadequate for a school with hundreds of students and teachers. According to one analysis at the time, 63 percent of public schools — serving over 40 million students — lacked broadband connections capable of taking advantage of digital learning.

To close this gap, President Obama launched the ConnectED initiative, with a central goal of connecting 99 percent of America’s students to high-speed Internet within five years. Enough time has elapsed to see if these collective efforts are having an impact, and early signs show that the steps our agencies have taken are delivering results for which we’d hoped. A little more than two years ago, our government set a goal. We are meeting that goal, and the result is 20 million more American students now have expanded access to digital learning opportunities. Through continued work together, we can ensure that a fast-growing world of technologies brings remarkable possibilities for teaching and learning — helping teachers to do their vital work and making school even more engaging for students.

Researchers Solve Juniper Backdoor Mystery; Signs Point to NSA

Security researchers believe they have finally solved the mystery around how a sophisticated backdoor embedded in Juniper firewalls works. Juniper Networks, a tech giant that produces networking equipment used by an array of corporate and government systems, announced that it had discovered two unauthorized backdoors in its firewalls, including one that allows the attackers to decrypt protected traffic passing through Juniper’s devices. The researchers’ findings suggest that the National Security Agency may be responsible for that backdoor, at least indirectly.

Even if the NSA did not plant the backdoor in the company’s source code, the spy agency may in fact be indirectly responsible for it by having created weaknesses the attackers exploited. Evidence uncovered by Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, founder and CEO of Comsecuris, a security consultancy in Germany, suggests that the Juniper culprits repurposed an encryption backdoor previously believed to have been engineered by the NSA, and tweaked it to use for their own spying purposes.

Europe and US have different approaches to protecting privacy of personal data

[Commentary] Laws are very different when governments consider something a right and not a privilege. Healthcare is one example. Privacy is another. European officials made clear recently that when it comes to protecting people's personal information, the burden is on businesses, not consumers, to do the heavy lifting.

A new data-privacy rule, to apply to more than 500 million people in 28 countries, will be put into effect by early 2017. Among other provisions, it will guarantee Europeans the right to have companies delete information about them that's no longer relevant and require businesses to inform regulators within three days of any data breach Contrast that with the approach in this country, where business interests uniformly come first. For example, corporate lobbyists have made sure that consumers have to opt out from having their personal data shared, rather than require companies to seek customers' upfront approval. Every expert I spoke with said the starting point for any discussion of privacy rights in America begins with the question of how it will affect business. The Europeans, they said, began their rule-making discussion four years ago with an understanding that privacy is a human right.

Sen Markey Wants (ADA) Title II Applied to Websites

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) wants Title II to cover websites, but it is Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) he and other lawmakers are pushing this time. In a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Sen Markey and eight other Senate Democrats said that it was past time for OMB to complete its review of a Justice Department rulemaking proposal -- issued a half decade ago -- clarifying the obligations under Title II and III of the ADA to make websites and other information systems and communications technology (ICT) accessible to people with disabilities. DOJ has secured settlement agreements under ADA's more general communications accessibility requirements, but the rulemaking would establish specific requirements and compliance standards.

The senators said the settlements -- with retailers, state and local governments, the hospitality industry -- are laudable but only apply in those specific instances, while others, they say, are exploiting the lack of regulatory clarity to avoid taking "appreciable actions." They did not name any names. They said that it is time for OMB to complete its review of the rulemaking proposal. Among other Senators on the letter were Al Franken (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Corey Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

FTC Issues Enforcement Policy Statement Addressing “Native” Advertising and Deceptively Formatted Advertisements

The Federal Trade Commission issued an enforcement policy statement explaining how established consumer protection principles apply to different advertising formats, including “native” ads that look like surrounding non-advertising content. In the Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements, the FTC lays out the general principles the Commission considers in determining whether any particular ad format is deceptive and violates the FTC Act.

The policy statement affirms the long-standing consumer protection principle that advertisements and promotional messages that promote the benefits and attributes of goods and services should be identifiable as advertising to consumers. The policy statement explains that an ad’s format is deceptive if it materially misleads consumers about the ad’s commercial nature, including through any implied or express representation that it comes from a party other than the sponsoring advertiser. If the source of advertising content is clear, consumers can make informed decisions about whether to interact with the advertising and the weight to give the information conveyed in the ad. Also released is “Native Advertising: A Guide for Business” to help companies understand, and comply with, the policy statement in the context of native advertising. The business guidance gives examples of when disclosures are necessary to prevent deception and FTC staff guidance on how to make clear and prominent disclosures within the format of native ads.

Issues that will Shape the World in 2016

[Commentary] Fast Company’s list of some of the most crucial topics facing the world in 2016 includes:

Global Internet Access: As more of the world's population gains access to the Internet—increasingly through inexpensive mobile devices rather than desktop computers—tech companies are exploring how best to serve (and exploit) a new customer base in developing nations. Facebook and Google are each working on projects to increase global Internet access, and Chinese electronics firm Xiaomi is bringing its cheap mobile devices into India, which will soon pass the US to become the world's second-largest smartphone market.

Data Security: In 2015 we learned that no institution is safe from hackers… not the US government, not health insurance companies—not even children's toys. In 2016, cybersecurity will be an increasingly critical problem for companies, governments, and individuals.

Black Lives Matter and Online Social Justice: With the ubiquity of social media and smartphone cameras, injustices that could once be concealed and ignored now receive mainstream attention. Thanks to viral hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter, online social justice will continue to be a major force inspiring real-life protests and legal progress in 2016.

Regulating the Sharing Economy: Sharing economy startups like Uber and Airbnb are expanding to more and more cities worldwide, and local laws are racing to catch up. Uber could soon be forced to classify its US drivers as employees—a move that would upend its business model—and Airbnb is facing legal issues related to taxes and safety.

Media bias is nothing new.

[Commentary] As a general rule, the public often seems to believe that the press is supposed to be objective and that something is wrong when it is not. There is a palpable sense that we have somehow strayed from a golden era of press objectivity, and a correspondent longing to return to those days. One complication: Those Shangri-La days never really existed — or at least not for long.

Media has much more frequently been a partisan pastime, ever since the country was created. Yet efforts to define and practice objectivity through the years quickly devolved into arguments about just what objectivity meant. Some researchers now say that far from being a departure from an ideal past, today’s sharp partisan criticisms of bias actually reflect a return to normal. “Perhaps MSNBC and Fox, et al., actually do represent a return to the partisan origins of American media (in the 18th and 19th centuries) and objectivity is an anomaly,” said Thomas Terry, a professor of journalism and communication at Utah State University. Audiences have fragmented into small special interest groups similar to what existed when this country began. “My theory is that we never actually lost the partisan ideal,” said van Tuyll at Augusta University. “The partisan press is the normal state of journalism.”

Buy the Americana, hand your data to the GOP

From the photo of a blue “God Bless America” T-shirt at the top of the page to the barely visible disclaimer at the bottom, the online store called Delaware Crossing is blazing a new trail in political fundraising and data-gathering. But the words at the bottom, in tiny white type on a light-blue background, make it clear that the store sits solidly on one side of the political divide: "Paid for by the [National Republican Congressional Committee] NRCC,” it says, with a link to House Republicans' campaign website.

Delaware Crossing, launched in Nov with next to no fanfare by the NRCC, breaks new ground by selling merchandise with no explicit partisan ties — something neither political party has tried before. It’s a new way to raise money and gather the e-mail addresses and other voter data that power modern campaigns, and both Democratic and Republican consultants say the store could bring in people who haven’t responded to more traditional fundraising asks. Then, once voters have donated or given their e-mail address once, they are much more likely to respond to future campaign requests.

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