1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2016

May 2016

State Dept inspector general report sharply criticizes Clinton’s e-mail practices

The State Department’s independent watchdog has issued a highly critical analysis of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail practices while running the department, concluding that she failed to seek legal approval for her use of a private e-mail server and that department staff would not have given its blessing because of the “security risks in doing so.” The inspector general found that Clinton’s use of private e-mail for public business was “not an appropriate method” of preserving documents and that her practices failed to comply with department policies meant to ensure that federal record laws are followed.

The report says Clinton, who is the Democratic presidential front-runner, should have printed and saved her e-mails during her four years in office or surrendered her work-related correspondence immediately upon stepping down in February 2013. Instead, Clinton provided those records in December 2014, nearly two years after leaving office. The report found that a top Clinton aide was warned in 2010 that the system may not properly preserve records but dismissed those worries, indicating that the system passed legal muster. But the inspector general said it could not show evidence of a review by legal counsel.

FTC Chair Ramirez Wants Broadband Privacy Authority

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez wants some authority over broadband privacy, though she is not opposed to sharing the wealth. The Federal Communications Commission deeded itself authority over protecting the privacy of broadband users' info when it reclassified Internet service providers as common carriers under new network neutrality rules, but Chairwoman Ramirez wants Congress to strike the common carrier exemption that prevents the FTC from going after false and deceptive practices of telecommunication providers.

That came in testimony May 24 at a House Commerce Subcommittee legislative hearing on a raft of bills. One of those, The Protecting Consumers in Commerce Act of 2016, would repeal the common carrier exemption, something the FTC was calling for before the FCC move. She said removing the exemption "would enable the FTC to bring its extensive law enforcement experience to bear in protecting consumers of common carriage services against unfair and deceptive practices in the same way that it can protect against unfair and deceptive practices for other services," including edge providers including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Snapchat, which the FCC has said it can't regulate. Chairwoman Ramirez says she doesn't mind sharing authority with the FCC. "Although the FCC would retain its jurisdiction over common carriers, consumers would benefit from the FTC having shared jurisdiction because the enforcement provisions of the FTC Act provide for consumer redress. Whereas the FCC traditionally has exercised its authority to fine companies for noncompliance, the FTC focuses on putting money back in the pockets of consumers."

What’s driving Silicon Valley to become ‘radicalized’

In Silicon Valley (CA), there’s a new emphasis on putting up barriers to government requests for data. The Apple-FBI case and its aftermath have tech firms racing to employ a variety of tools that would place customer information beyond the reach of a government-ordered search. The trend is a striking reversal of a long-standing article of faith in the data-hungry tech industry, where companies including Google and the latest start-ups have predicated success on the ability to hoover up as much information as possible about consumers. Now, some large tech firms are increasingly offering services to consumers that rely far less on collecting data.

The sea change is even becoming evident among early-stage companies that see holding so much data as more of a liability than an asset, given the risk that cybercriminals or government investigators might come knocking. Start-ups that once hesitated to invest in security are now repurposing limited resources to build technical systems to shed data, even if it hinders immediate growth. "Engineers are not inherently anti-government, but they are becoming radicalized, because they believe that the FBI, in particular, and the US government, more broadly, wants to outlaw encryption,” said prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

AT&T wants to pipe DirecTV straight into your car

AT&T doesn't just want to put an Internet connection in every car. It wants the people in those cars to watch its recently acquired television service, DirecTV. So, someday in the not-too-distant future, the wireless carrier plans to begin piping the pay-TV service into connected vehicles over its cellular network.

"We think that DirecTV is a great entertainment asset in our portfolio, and we're actively working with them to identify ways to bring DTV content into the car," said Chris Penrose, senior vice president of AT&T's Internet of Things department. AT&T said there is no timeline for the integration yet. But for parents and families, it could mean for the first time giving restless youngsters in the backseat access to live, streaming television on long road trips. For AT&T, layering a data-intensive service on top of its existing wireless network means something else: More money.

Court Throws Out FCC's Joint Sales Agreements Rule

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out the Federal Communications Commission's decision to make some joint sales agreements attributable as ownership interests, saying the FCC "improperly" enacted the rule. The court also chastised the FCC for not completing its quadrennial review of media ownership rules and concluded the FCC had "unreasonably delayed" action on defining an "eligible entity," which is key to its promoting of minority and female ownership.

In fact, failing to complete the quadrennial review was directly related to the JSA decision. "We agree with Deregulatory Petitioners that the Commission violated § 202(h) by expanding the reach of the ownership rules without first justifying their preexisting scope through a Quadrennial Review," the court said. "We are not dealing with a Quadrennial Review that is merely flawed, but rather with one that has never been completed," wrote judge Thomas Ambro for the majority. "Before defining ownership more restrictively, as it does when it enacts an attribution rule, the Commission must at a bare minimum show that it is even in the public interest to regulate ownership in the first instance."

Comcast limits data cap overage fees to $200 a month

Starting June 1, Comcast customers who face data caps will not be able to rack up more than $200 worth of overage charges in a month. Comcast will continue to charge an extra $10 for each 50GB allotted to customers beyond the standard data plan. But prior to this change, there was apparently no limit on how many times per month a customer could be charged the extra $10.

Comcast is also raising the monthly cap from 300GB to 1TB beginning June 1. To accumulate $200 in overage charges, customers would have to use an additional terabyte. Comcast will also let customers purchase unlimited data for an extra $50 a month starting June 1, up from the current $30 or $35. When Comcast introduced the unlimited data option in 2015, it was only available in some cities and towns. But with the June 1 change, it appears every customer in one of the data cap trial markets will be able to buy unlimited data. Customers who are signed up for unlimited data will pay the extra $50 each month even if they don't go over the cap. According to the letter posted on DSLReports, customers already paying for unlimited data will keep their current pricing until the end of 2016; after that, they will pay $50.

Verizon strike is hurting its stock

It's been more than a month since nearly 40,000 Verizon workers went on strike. And it looks like the labor problems are taking a toll on Verizon's business ... and its stock. Investors have hung up on Verizon lately. Shares are down nearly 5% since the strike began on April 13. That's worse than the broader market as well as telecommunication and cable rivals AT&T and Comcast.

The Communications Workers of America, one of the unions representing the striking workers, has been gleefully pointing out how Wall Street has dumped Verizon. In a recent press release, the CWA noted that Wells Fargo recently slashed its revenue estimates for Verizon for the second quarter and full year. And while investors should obviously take any gloating from the CWA with a grain or two of salt, the union's claims aren't off the mark. Not by a long shot. The strike clearly is having a financial impact. Wells Fargo isn't the only bank to trim its outlook for Verizon. Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate for Verizon for the second quarter has fallen by 4% over the past two months.

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