1. Monthly archive
  2. March 2016

March 2016

Big Data is Watching: Growing Digital Data Surveillance of Consumers by ISPs and Other Leading Video Providers

Americans face growing new threats to their personal privacy as phone and cable Internet service providers (ISPs), along with leading Internet companies, expand their ability to capture details about what we do online in order to target us with data-driven personalized advertising. This report examines AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter, Cox, Verizon, Dish, Time Warner Cable, Viacom, Google, News Corp. (Fox), Turner Broadcasting (Time Warner), and Disney, focusing on some of their recent data- and video-related advertising practices.The ability of an ISP and others to identify and target us regardless of what digital device we use, moreover, has effectively erased any privacy safeguards we may have enjoyed in the past when we switched between devices. The report provides more evidence of the “digital data arms race” that is further eroding consumer privacy.

The Federal Communications Commission’s pending proceeding on privacy should examine all the ways that broadband networks operated by Internet service providers gather and use consumer information today. The review and policy proposals need to address the data-targeting relationships that ISPs have with leading digital marketing companies, including ad exchanges, data brokers, and advertisers. The FCC should enact privacy and consumer protection rules that provide individuals with rights over their data—including a set of Fair Information Practices that address the current data practices of ISPs. These companies should not be allowed to share data with affiliates or to use information for marketing their services without the informed, prior consent of the customer. Policies for privacy are essential as well for a competitive digital video market. Otherwise powerful ISPs and other gatekeepers will control the key way programming is financially supported and distributed.

Rep Blackburn Slams FCC Over Set-Tops, Preemption

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says that she does not take issue with the fact that the Federal Communications Commission has chosen to tackle some tough issues--those include privacy, and broadband regulation, and set-tops--but that it has "embraced controversial solutions" seemingly at every turn, including potentially allowing theft by third-party navigation device and radical federal overreach via municipal broadband state law preemption. Rep Blackburn raised those issues at an FCC oversight hearing March 22, then drilled down on them in a keynote speech at a Free State Foundation policy conference the next day.

Rep Blackburn is no fan of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed new framework for regulating broadband customer privacy, authority the FCC gave itself when it reclassified ISPs as Title II telecom services, a move Blackburn also did not like. Rep Blackburn is also no fan of the FCC's preemption of Tennessee state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts. She says the logic behind the FCC's preemption is "fundamentally flawed." "Private companies can’t be expected to compete with taxpayer backed entities," she says. Cable operators who have pushed back on those municipal buildouts agree, arguing that they can be a way to cross-subsidize overbuilds, sometimes with taxpayers left holding the bag for efforts that don't pan out.

Thousands Support Expanding Lifeline to Broadband in Petitions Submitted to FCC

Public Knowledge joined MAG-Net, Communications Workers of America, Color of Change, and OC Inc. in submitting more than 20,000 signatures to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to expand its low-income phone subsidy program, Lifeline, to broadband Internet. The petitions will be added to the public record, which the Commissioners will consider before they vote on the Lifeline modernization proposal at the March 31 Open Meeting. Public Knowledge supports modernizing Lifeline to include broadband Internet as the new essential communications tool for the 21st century.

Meredith Whipple, Digital Content Associate at Public Knowledge, said, "“We are pleased to see that thousands of people took action to ask the Federal Communications Commission to modernize the Lifeline program to support broadband Internet access. It is clear from this outpouring of support how essential broadband access is to people’s lives. In 1985, the Federal Communications Commission established the Lifeline program, which provided a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income Americans. In 2005, the program was updated to include wireless phones. In 2015, Lifeline is still a successful program for ensuring all Americans have the opportunities and security provided by essential communications services, like connecting to emergency services, jobs, and family members. Now, 30 years after the introduction of Lifeline, the addition of broadband access is a clear next step for the Lifeline program. Americans increasingly rely on broadband Internet for education, employment, health care, news and information, access to government and social services, commerce, and basic communications. However, for many Americans, broadband is simply not affordable. Modernizing the Lifeline program to include broadband Internet access will help millions of Americans stay connected, further closing the digital divide and supporting a thriving American economy. We look forward to the Commission’s decision on its Lifeline modernization proposal.”

Angola’s Wikipedia Pirates Are Exposing the Problems With Digital Colonialism

Wikimedia and Facebook have given Angolans free access to their websites, but not to the rest of the Internet. So, naturally, Angolans have started hiding pirated movies and music in Wikipedia articles and linking to them on closed Facebook groups, creating a totally free and clandestine file sharing network in a country where mobile Internet data is extremely expensive. It’s an undeniably creative use of two services that were designed to give people in the developing world some access to the Internet. But now that Angolans are causing headaches for Wikipedia editors and the Wikimedia Foundation, no one is sure what to do about it.

Idaho mom who sued Obama over illegal surveillance loses at appellate court

The Idaho mother who sued President Barack Obama over alleged unconstitutional telephone metadata collection has lost again in court. Anna Smith had her initial case dismissed in 2014, and on March 22 her appeal met a similar fate. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Smith, finding that her case was now moot in light of the new changes to the now-expired Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

Within the past year, Congress voted to end Section 215 but then substituted it with a similar law (called the USA Freedom Act) that leaves the phone metadata surveillance apparatus largely in place. The government no longer collects the data directly, but even former NSA Director Michael Hayden admitted in June 2015 that this legal change was pretty minor. During oral arguments held in December 2014, the judges seemed unconvinced that they should overturn the third-party doctrine established in Smith v. Maryland, a landmark Supreme Court decision from 1979. That case found that a person has no privacy interest over information disclosed to a third-party, such as a telephone company. Privacy activists have been staunchly trying to challenge that holding for decades, with little success. As such, the 9th Circuit concluded that "Smith’s claims related to the ongoing collection of metadata are moot and vacate and remand for their dismissal."

NSF to Fund Up to $10 Million of US Ignite Gigabit R&D

The National Science Foundation aims to award as much as $10 million in grant funding toward US Ignite gigabit R&D. Funded projects will carry out fundamental research to advance gigabit network protocols and infrastructure and/or develop new applications and prototypes that expand the use of high-speed network infrastructure. The gigabit R&D project solicitation is part and parcel of US Ignite, a non-profit public-private partnership program launched by NSF and the White House Office of Science Technology Policy in June 2012 to spur US leadership in development and deployment of next-generation gigabit networks and applications. Bridging the ¨Digital Divide¨ while at the same time enhancing US economic competitiveness are the motivations that guide and inform US Ignite. Program managers are aiming to deliver 60 next-gen gigabit broadband applications and establish 200 community test beds by 2017.

The latest NSF-US Ignite solicitation seeks to make up to $10 million in capital available to fund projects focusing on one of two areas:
Focus Area 1 encourages the development of application ideas and prototypes addressing national priority areas that explore new uses for high speed networks and give rise to Smart and Connected Communities. Focus Area 1 builds on activities explored by previous US Ignite investments.
Focus Area 2 funds fundamental research advances in networking technology and protocols that further the capabilities and understanding of gigabit networking infrastructure to meet current and future application demands. Focus Area 2 projects should seek to propose fundamental advances in networking infrastructure that, if successful, would better enable current or future gigabit to multi-gigabit applications.

FCC Chairman Wheeler's Response to Rep. Ruiz Regarding the Transaction Between Frontier and Verizon

On Dec 3, Rep Raul Ruiz (D-CA) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the FCC approval of Frontier Communications' purchase of Verizon's wireline networks in California, Texas, and Florida. On March 14, Chairman Wheeler responded by detailing the commitments by Frontier relating to the provision of broadband services in rural or underserved areas. Chairman Wheeler also assured that Frontier will be subject to the same Connect America Fund Phase II public interest obligations that applied to Verizon.

Commerce Sec Penny Pritzker Announces Kiersten Todt as Executive Director of Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity

Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced that she has selected Kiersten Todt to join the Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) team and serve as the Executive Director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. This Commission, created by Presidential Executive Order and supported by NIST and the Commerce Department along with its interagency partners, is part of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan that President Barack Obama announced on February 9 to develop near-term actions and a long-term strategy that will enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections, protect privacy, maintain public safety, support economic and national security, and empower Americans to better manage their safety online. The Commission will solicit input from thought leaders and experts across the country to develop its report by December 1, 2016, and provide actionable recommendations that can be used by the public and private sectors in the short and long-term.

Todt will be working directly with the Commission Chair Tom Donilon, former National Security Advisor to President Obama, Vice Chair Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM, and other Commissioners who will soon be selected. Prior to her appointment at the Commerce Department, Kiersten Todt was the President and Managing Partner of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC (LGV). She developed risk and crisis management solutions for cybersecurity, infrastructure, homeland security, emergency management, and higher education clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. She has served in senior positions in both the executive and legislative branches of government.

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