February 2016

PRIVACY/SECURITY

DOJ ON APPLE'S REFUSAL TO UNLOCK IPHONE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
The Justice Department, impatient over its inability to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino (CA) killers, demanded that a judge immediately order Apple to give it the technical tools to get inside the phone. It said that Apple’s refusal to help unlock the phone for the FBI “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” rather than a legal rationale. In court documents, prosecutors asked a federal judge to enforce an earlier order requiring Apple to provide the government with a tool to extract the data from a locked iPhone 5c. They are trying to get into the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the attackers in the San Bernardino rampage, which left 14 dead. “Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack by obeying this court’s order of February 16, 2016,” prosecutors wrote in their latest filing, “Apple has responded by publicly repudiating that order.”
benton.org/headlines/justice-department-calls-apples-refusal-unlock-iphone-marketing-strategy | New York Times | WSJ | USAToday
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PRIVACY COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Ville Heiskanen]
Apple said Congress should form a committee to discuss privacy and personal freedoms. Apple would “gladly participate” in such an effort. “We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology, and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy, and personal freedoms,” the company said.
benton.org/headlines/apple-calls-congress-form-committee-privacy-issues | Bloomberg
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SHOWDOWN REIGNITES DEBATE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Todd Frankel, Ellen Nakashima]
The Justice Department calculated that it held a winning hand — the passcode-locked Apple iPhone of a terrorist — when it went to a federal court. Not only did the agency want Apple to build special software to help the FBI crack open the phone, but the government also knew the order would be made public. After a mass killing that provoked national outrage, the government hoped to win support far outside the courtroom in its bid to gain access to encrypted phones in criminal and terrorism cases. “They picked this case to increase the chances of getting public opinion on their side,” said a former federal prosecutor. Now, a single iPhone has reignited a broad debate about government surveillance and the needs of law enforcement vs. the need for privacy. The showdown escalated with the Justice Department accusing Apple of putting its “brand marketing” ahead of the law. The stakes have soared, well beyond the fate of any particular iPhone. “How can anyone back down now?” asked Mike McNerney, a former cybersecurity adviser to the secretary of defense and now a Truman National Security Project fellow. “You can’t solve [this case] when it’s the director of the FBI vs. the CEO of Apple.”
benton.org/headlines/showdown-over-iphone-reignites-debate-around-privacy | Washington Post
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CONGRESS SEEKS TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm]
At least two congressional committees are planning hearings after Apple’s refusal to help the FBI unlock a phone used by a terrorist. The House Judiciary Committee asked officials from Apple to testify at a March 1 hearing, according to people familiar with the planning. And the House Commerce Committee sent letters to Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, asking them to testify. A date wasn’t specified.
benton.org/headlines/congress-seeks-apple-testimony-amid-fbi-row-over-encryption | Bloomberg | B&C | House Commerce Committee
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STRATEGY TO CRACK PHONES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Michael Riley, Jordan Robertson]
Apparently, in November 2015 senior national security officials ordered agencies across the US government to find ways to counter encryption software and gain access to the most heavily protected user data on the most secure consumer devices, including Apple’s iPhone. The approach was formalized in a confidential National Security Council “decision memo,” tasking government agencies with developing encryption workarounds, estimating additional budgets and identifying laws that may need to be changed to counter what FBI Director James Comey calls the “going dark” problem: investigators being unable to access the contents of encrypted data stored on mobile devices or traveling across the Internet. Details of the memo reveal that, in private, the government was honing a sharper edge to its relationship with Silicon Valley alongside more public signs of rapprochement.
benton.org/headlines/memo-details-uss-broader-strategy-crack-phones | Bloomberg
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
HOW TECHNOLOGY IS INFLUENCING YOUR VOTE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
[Commentary] Communications technology is playing a tremendous role in the 2016 election, from debate coverage and the influence of social media to “voter surveillance” in campaigning. What voices are being amplified in this environment? And what does this mean to those who have not adopted these technologies?
https://www.benton.org/blog/how-technology-influencing-your-vote
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TELEVISION

WASHINGTON WANTS YOUR CABLE COMPANY TO BECOME A WHOLE NEW PRIVACY COP
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
As companies like Google become more interested in building their own cable box to compete with the one you rent from your TV provider, one big question is how they'll protect your privacy. Just like Netflix knows exactly when you tune in and tune out from a show, a set-top box made by a company outside of the cable industry would gain access to much of the same information. Basically, could this data be used for targeted advertising? Federal regulators say no. Their recent proposal to "unlock the box" and let non-cable firms design alternatives to the traditional set-top box would require those companies to obey the same privacy rules that cable companies do. But what's interesting about this idea is how they propose to implement it: Give the cable companies responsibility for ensuring that cable boxes made by third parties don't abuse your personal data. The proposal effectively contemplates a world where Comcast could be overseeing Google, for example.
benton.org/headlines/washington-wants-your-cable-company-become-whole-new-privacy-cop | Washington Post
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ACCESSIBILITY

CLOSED CAPTIONING SECOND REPORT AND ORDER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this Second Report and Order, the Federal Communications Commission allocates the responsibilities of video programming distributors (VPDs) and video programmers with respect to the provision and quality of closed captions on television programming. These actions are intended to ensure that people who are deaf and hard of hearing have full access to such programming. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, “Today’s Commission action on closed captioning is about responsibility. Those who produce and distribute video for television have a shared responsibility to ensure that closed captioning is both available and accurate. Likewise, this agency has a responsibility to seize on this moment in time which, for the first time in human history, offers us real opportunities to address the communications challenges faced by tens of millions of Americans with disabilities. We are making significant progress on this front and I thank my fellow Commissioners for joining me in this important work.”
benton.org/headlines/closed-captioning-second-report-and-order | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Wheeler Statement
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OWNERSHIP

MERGER OPPOSITION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission's Charter/Time Warner Cable merger review docket has been flooded with filings asking it to block the merger in no uncertain terms. The merger docket is by far the most active, with over 40,761 comments filed in the last 30 days (the special access proceeding is second at 3,688). "Stop Charter before it hikes prices, broadens the digital divide and forms a cartel with Comcast to kill consumer choice and competition," said one apparently angry citizen. "Stop Charter before it hikes prices, broadens the digital divide and forms a cartel with Comcast to kill consumer choice and competition," said another, and another, and another, and another.
benton.org/headlines/anti-chartertwc-complaints-flood-fcc | Multichannel News
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DIVERSITY

WHITEWASHED HOLLYWOOD
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Jake Cole]
In one of the most exhaustive and damning reports on diversity in Hollywood, a new study finds that the films and television produced by major media companies are "whitewashed," and that an "epidemic of invisibility" runs top to bottom through the industry for women, minorities and LGBT people. A study to be released by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers one of the most wide-ranging examinations of the film and television industries, including a pointed "inclusivity index" of 10 major media companies — from Disney to Netflix — that gives a failing grade to every movie studio and most TV makers. The report offers a new barrage of sobering statistics that further evidence a deep discrepancy between Hollywood and the American population it entertains, in gender, race and ethnicity. In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28.3 percent were from minority groups - about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population. Characters 40 years or older skew heavily male across film and TV: 74.3 percent male to 25.7 percent female. Just 2 percent of speaking characters were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered (and four were from the same series).
benton.org/headlines/study-finds-whitewashed-hollywood | Associated Press
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WIRELESS

NETWORKS NEED UPGRADE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
The holy grail for the telecoms industry is a network that is all-powerful, always on and everywhere. This may sound fantastical to those using an unreliable mobile or home broadband connection, but it may be closer than many imagine. “We think we are at a point where there is a huge disruption coming,” says Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer at Nokia and president of Bell Labs. Telecoms networks have already seen increases in speeds, but experts say a bigger change is needed in order to connect billions of devices in homes, work places and public spaces. The past few technology cycles have been driven by devices or web services, Weldon says, but the next disruption will be about creating cloud-based networks from which we can instantly access data. “Every device, every media, every person will be connected,” says Weldon. “Mundane tasks will be taken away by algorithms that can automate large chunks of everyday life. The network is cool again because it enables a new human existence.” But new network architecture is needed. “All available tech is maxed out,” Weldon says. “We built a network for people but in future every person will have 100 connected things.” Fibre networks capable of carrying vast amounts of data across countries will need to be expanded. Developing the technology behind 5G — the next generation of high speed mobile — is also crucial.
benton.org/headlines/telecoms-networks-are-maxed-out-and-need-upgrade | Financial Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

DIGITAL ACCESS DIVIDE
[SOURCE: Telecommunications Policy, AUTHOR: Martin Hilbert]
In contrary to the common argument that the digital access divide is quickly closing and that the focus should shift to skills and usage, this article shows that access to digital communication is a moving target unlikely to ever be solved. While the number of subscriptions reaches population saturation levels, the bandwidth divide continuous to be dynamic. The article measures the nationally installed bandwidth potential of 172 countries from 1986 to 2014. The overarching finding is that the divide in terms of bandwidth does not show any clear monotonic pattern. It fluctuates up and down over the decades as the result of an intricate interplay between incessant technological progress and diffusion of technology. The bandwidth divide between high- and low income countries has first increased and only decreased below historic levels very recently during 2012–2014. In general it shows that the bandwidth divide is linked to the income divide, which is notoriously persistent. The bandwidth distribution among all countries is undergoing a new process of global concentration, during which North America and Europe is being replaced by Asia as the new global leader. In 2014 only 3 countries host 50% of the globally installed bandwidth potential (10 countries almost 75%). The U.S. lost its global leadership in 2011, being replaced by China, which contributes more than twice as much national bandwidth potential in 2014 (29% versus 13%). Despite this bad news about the continuous persistence of the digital access divide among countries, exploratory analysis from a global perspective brings the good news that many more individual people seem to enjoy more equal access to global bandwidth. All of this showcases the urgency to systematically develop indicators to track the digital divide in terms of bandwidth.
benton.org/headlines/bad-news-digital-access-divide-here-stay | Telecommunications Policy
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February 2016

Analysis

Digital Literacy and Inclusion: “We Are All In It Together”

February 22, 2016 (Apple News and More)

Study Finds A ‘Whitewashed’ Hollywood

Apple Calls for Congress to Form Committee for Privacy Issues

Apple Still Holds the Keys to Its Cloud Service, but Reluctantly

How the U.S. Fights Encryption—and Also Helps Develop It