#Solutions2020 Policy Forum Hosted by FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn | Oct 19 2016 - 1:00pm - 5:15pm | Georgetown University Law Center | https://www.benton.org/node/247893
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Inspired by Hatch HS Student, Sen Udall Calls on FCC to Make Wi-Fi Available on School Buses - press release
Google Wireless ISP is Official, Integration with Google Fiber is Now on Deck [links to Benton summary]
Good-Bye, GigaPower, Hello ‘AT&T Fiber' [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for US intelligence
How an Old Hacking Law Hampers the Fight Against Online Discrimination - analysis
This app promises privacy through encrypted messaging, but a US subpoena puts it to test
House Small Business Committee: FCC Fails to Respond to Concerns on Broadband Privacy Rules [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Google: FCC Should Adopt FTC Privacy Model [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Public or private, celebrities deserve control over their data, too [links to International Association of Privacy Professionals]
ELECTIONS 2016
If Trump is president, he’ll make the Wireless Emergency Alert system his own personalized Twitter - Backchannel editorial [links to Benton summary]
Twitter, Instagram and Uber work to get out the vote [links to Washington Post]
Frustrated Newspapers Are Dealing With the Fallout From Surprising Endorsements of Presidential Candidates [links to AdWeek]
TELECOM
Frontier Drops Opposition to Price Caps After Reaching Deal With Sprint
Verizon workers can now be fired if they fix copper phone lines [links to Benton summary]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
T-Mobile now throttling mobile hotspots when network is congested [links to Benton summary]
FCC Announces BETA Testing of Post-Incentive Auction Broadcaster Relocation Reimbursement System [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Report on the FCC's expenditures to support its spectrum auction program during Fiscal Year 2015 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Wi-Fi -- Too Important To Fail - LinkedIn op-ed [links to Benton summary]
TELEVISION
Set Top Box Endgame - FCC Commissioner O'Rielly [links to Benton summary]
Charter Sues Louisville Over Disparate Video Treatment [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
How Shari Redstone Turned the Tide for Control of $40 Billion Media Empire [links to New York Times]
CONTENT
A Virtual Visit to a Relative in Jail - NYT op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Fed to study future role of electronic payment systems [links to Hill, The]
A Digital Monoculture Is a Bigger Threat Than the Terminator Scenario - AdAge op-ed [links to Benton summary]
After Facebook “censors” anti-Muslim posts, hate groups sue US government [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
This is the news Facebook chooses for you to read - WaPo analysis
Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism [links to Tow Center for Digital Journalism]
Ex-con fights for prisoner rights and battles censorship [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Rural Utility Service Seeks Comment on Community Connect Grant Program Information Collection Requirements [links to Benton summary]
Is 18F on Solid Financial Footing? [links to Government Technology]
POLICYMAKERS
USTelecom Names Technology Leader Jonathan Spalter as New CEO - press release [links to Benton summary]
Joan Marsh Takes Over Leadership of AT&T's Federal Regulatory Team in DC - press release [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
Google shows off new phone, virtual reality headset and home assistant [links to Los Angeles Times]
Google Home wants to take over your home entertainment system [links to Washington Post]
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
SEN UDALL CALLS ON FCC TO MAKE WI-FI AVAILABLE ON SCHOOL BUSES
[SOURCE: US Senate, AUTHOR: Sen Tom Udall (D-NM)]
Sen Tom Udall (D-NM) called on the Federal Communications Commission to do more to ensure all students in New Mexico and across the country have equal access to the Internet for educational and economic opportunity. Specifically, Sen Udall wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC should extend the successful E-rate program, which pays for Internet access in schools, and provide Wi-Fi on school buses so students can have more time to do their homework. While the E-Rate program has helped ensure schools are equipped with broadband Internet, a third of New Mexico households - and homes across the country - still lack access, either because families can't afford it or because it simply isn't available. But with seven in 10 teachers nationwide assigning homework that requires Internet access, students without access at home are now at an unfair disadvantage to their peers. "Broadband should help create educational opportunities for these children, not a new barrier to their success at school," Sen Udall wrote to Chairman Wheeler.
benton.org/headlines/inspired-hatch-hs-student-sen-udall-calls-fcc-make-wi-fi-available-school-buses | US Senate
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
YAHOO SECRETLY SCANNED CUSTOMER E-MAILS FOR US INTELLIGENCE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
Apparently, in 2015, Yahoo Inc secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming e-mails for specific information provided by US intelligence officials. The company complied with a classified US government demand, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said three former employees and a fourth person apprised of the events. Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a US Internet company agreeing to a spy agency's request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time. It is not known what information intelligence officials were looking for, only that they wanted Yahoo to search for a set of characters. That could mean a phrase in an e-mail or an attachment, apparently. Apparently, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's decision to obey the directive roiled some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now holds the top security job at Facebook Inc.
benton.org/headlines/yahoo-secretly-scanned-customer-emails-us-intelligence | Reuters | The Hill | The Intercept
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HOW AN OLD HACKING LAW HAMPERS THE FIGHT AGAINST ONLINE DISCRIMINATION
[SOURCE: The New Yorker, AUTHOR: E Tammy Kim]
Thirty years ago, during the Reagan Administration, Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was designed in large part to prohibit the theft of government data. (Reagan became interested in the issue after watching the 1983 film “WarGames,” in which a young hacker, played by Matthew Broderick, inadvertently gains access to a supercomputer that controls the US nuclear arsenal.) The text of the CFAA begins reasonably enough, by targeting hacks that put the national defense and foreign relations at risk. From there, though, the law grows like an algae bloom, expanding the definition of fraud to include any “unauthorized access” to a “protected computer.” Rather than explaining precisely what “unauthorized” means, the CFAA leaves it up to the owner of the computer to decide. As a result, companies have the right to sue people who violate their terms of service, even for such mundane activities as sharing a password with a friend. What’s more, the federal government can subject alleged offenders to criminal prosecution, seeking to impose prison time and hefty fines, essentially turning the US Department of Justice into corporate muscle.
benton.org/headlines/how-and-old-hacking-law-hampers-fight-against-online-discrimination | New Yorker, The
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THIS APP PROMISES PRIVACY THROUGH ENCRYPTED MESSAGING, BUT A US SUBPOENA PUT IT TO TEST
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
The company responsible for spreading top-of-the-line message encryption across the Internet has had a first legal skirmish with the US government. Open Whisper Systems — whose Signal app pioneered the end-to-end encryption technique now used by many messaging services — was subpoenaed for information about one of its users earlier in 2016. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the company, said the small San Francisco firm didn't produce the user's name, address, call logs or other details requested by the government. “That's not because Signal chose not to provide logs of information,” ACLU lawyer Brett Kaufman said in a telephone interview. “It's just that it couldn't.” Created by anarchist yachtsman Moxie Marlinspike and a crew of surf-happy developers, Signal has evolved from a niche app used by dissidents and protest leaders into the foundation stone for the encryption of huge tranches of the world's communications data. When any of WhatsApp's billion-plus users sees a discreet lock icon with the words, “Messages you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption,” they have Signal to thank. Facebook's recently launched private chat feature, Secret Conversations, uses Signal's technology; so does the incognito mode on Google's messenger service Allo.
benton.org/headlines/app-promises-privacy-through-encrypted-messaging-us-subpoena-puts-it-test | Associated Press
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TELECOM
FRONTIER DROPS OPPOSITION TO PRICE CAPS AFTER REACHING DEAL WITH SPRINT
[SOURCE: Morning Consult, AUTHOR: Brendan Bordelon]
Telecommunication companies Sprint, Frontier Communications and Windstream Services released a joint filing to the Federal Communications Commission expressing their support for upcoming FCC rules that may place price caps on the data services that power transactions at retail outlets and ATMs. They simultaneously urged the commission to adopt a tiered approach to the new rules for business data services, or BDS, that would favor smaller carriers. The filing marked an about-face for Frontier, which has long resisted changing the market in which bulk data connections are sold directly to businesses from phone companies. Frontier said the latest agreement is satisfactory. “Yesterday’s filing by Frontier, Windstream, and Sprint reflects a consensus approach which affords the smaller price-cap carriers a reasonable transition period to adjust to potential reductions to BDS rates,” spokesman John Puskar said in a statement.
benton.org/headlines/frontier-drops-opposition-price-caps-after-reaching-deal-sprint | Morning Consult
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JOURNALISM
THIS IS THE NEWS FACEBOOK CHOOSES FOR YOU TO READ
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Abby Ohlheiser]
Facebook has long characterized itself as a neutral platform that simply connects its users to the rest of the world. But over the past several months, the company faced greatly increased scrutiny, including accusations of bias, over the news it shows its users and where that news comes from. The further takeover of the algorithm was Facebook’s response to all that criticism, something that the company appeared to hope would quell accusations of human bias in its news recommendations. Instead, the early high-profile mistakes of the new trending regime only seemed to highlight how much work it still has to do. In the first weeks of the new Trending bar, Facebook trended conspiracy theories, old news, fake news — including one story from a site that had “Fakingnews” in its domain name — and was generally slow to pick up on major developing news stories (with the very notable exception of its swift pickup of the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce). We documented a lot of that in our pop-up newsletter on Facebook’s trends. Facebook showed us 31 articles each for Yahoo and USA Today through its trending topics — the top amounts for all of the publications we saw — yet they are both lagging behind in overall engagements for the same period.
benton.org/headlines/news-facebook-chooses-you-read | Washington Post
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