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February 2016

It's Not Just The iPhone Law Enforcement Wants To Unlock

A Q&A with Manhattan Defense Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. When asked to summarize his argument that Apple should comply with the court order from the federal government and build the technology needed to open this particular phone, Vance said, "Our inability, as a result of Apple's engineering its phones to make it impossible for them to use a digital key to open a phone, has left us in a place where we are simply unable to perform our function to protect the public." He continued, "We started tracking the number of iOS 8 devices that we cannot access as a result of Apple's decision in late 2014. And over that year-and-a-half time period, there are now 175 phones that we cannot access out of a universe of 670 phones that our cyber lab has evaluated. So it's about a quarter of the phones we haven't been able to get into."

Can the government force Silicon Valley to spy on its customers?

The idea of forcing Silicon Valley companies to help the government spy on their customers might seem outlandish, but this kind of thing has become commonplace in the telephone industry. Indeed, the FBI's legal argument against Apple in the San Bernardino (CA) case rests heavily on a 1977 Supreme Court decision ordering the New York Telephone Company to help the FBI spy on one of its customers. It's only a matter of time before law enforcement agencies start to take advantage of the opportunities created by all the Internet-connected devices. And if the FBI wins its legal fight with Apple, it could establish a precedent that opens the door to the use of the All Writs Act for other types of surveillance.

But even if Apple wins in court — or the courts issue a narrow ruling that precludes more ambitious surveillance efforts — this debate isn't going to go away. Law enforcement agencies are accustomed to being able to use every available means to spy on suspects. There's no reason to think they'll be happy with a broad and permanent exception for digital devices.

Verizon Puts Up $1.8 Billion for XO’s Fiber Business

Verizon Communications said that it has inked a $1.8 billion deal to acquire XO Communications’ fiber-optic network business. According to XO’s most current corporate overview document, its network spans about 20,000 route miles, 1.2 million metro fiber miles, more than 4,000 on-net buildings, and north of 1,000 central offices. Tied into the deal, Verizon will also simultaneously lease available XO wireless spectrum, with an option to buy XO’s entity that holds its spectrum, by the end of 2018. Verizon said the fiber-facing part of the deal will enable it to better serve enterprise and wholesale customers, and to add density to its cellular network.

Smartphone Ownership and Internet Usage Continues to Climb in Emerging Economies

In 2013, a median of 45% across 21 emerging and developing countries reported using the Internet at least occasionally or owning a smartphone. In 2015, that figure rose to 54%, with much of that increase coming from large emerging economies such as Malaysia, Brazil and China. By comparison, a median of 87% use the Internet across 11 advanced economies surveyed in 2015, including the US and Canada, major Western European nations, developed Pacific nations (Australia, Japan and South Korea) and Israel. This represents a 33-percentage-point gap compared with emerging and developing nations.

For smartphone ownership, the digital divide between less advanced economies and developed economies is 31 points in 2015. But smartphone ownership rates in emerging and developing nations are rising at an extraordinary rate, climbing from a median of 21% in 2013 to 37% in 2015. And overwhelming majorities in almost every nation surveyed report owning some form of mobile device, even if they are not considered “smartphones.” While Internet access has been rising in emerging and developing nations, those worldwide who have Internet access are voracious users. Roughly three-quarters of adult Internet users across the 40 countries surveyed in 2015 say that they use the Internet at least once a day, with majorities in many countries saying that they access the web “several times a day.”

State of Connectivity 2015: A Report on Global Internet Access

, the second annual study by Facebook, takes a close look at the current state of global Internet connectivity, how it has changed since 2014 and how we can use the data identified to generate new insights. At the end of 2015, estimates showed that 3.2 billion people were online. This increase (up from 3 billion in 2014) is partly attributed to more affordable data and rising global incomes in 2014. Over the past 10 years, connectivity increased by approximately 200 to 300 million people per year. While this is positive news in terms of growth, it also means that globally, 4.1 billion people were still not internet users in 2015 (43 percent). In order to address the barriers to connectivity, corporations, governments, NGOs and non-profits need to work together to continue gathering more accurate data on the state of global connectivity, and develop global standards for collecting, reporting, and distributing this data.

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