Kate Tummarello

Comcast has business motivations to follow the Obama Administration's now-defunct network neutrality rules, according to CEO Brian Roberts.

Comcast will continue to treat all Internet traffic the same, the company's CEO said. "Getting broadband connectivity to our customers ... means you want to have the best experience," Roberts said, adding that consumers don't want their Internet providers to block or slow access to certain websites.

"I think the ship has long ago sailed in terms of charging companies for [a] high speed fast lane." Roberts said his company will work with the Federal Communications Commission as it attempts to rewrite its network neutrality rules, which kept Internet providers from blocking or slowing access to certain websites and was struck down by a federal court in early 2014.

The company's investors want to ensure that Comcast's base of Internet subscribers continues to grow, he said. "It's the first thing our Wall Street investors will ask us." Outside of business reasons to treat all Internet traffic the same, Comcast committed to practicing net neutrality when it purchased NBC Universal in 2011.

Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) applauded the recent decision by the Obama Administration to relinquish its oversight role in Internet governance.

"I’ve long held the belief and championed the US support for the successful multistakeholder model for Internet governance," Rep Eshoo -- the leading Democrat on the House Commerce subcommittee on technology -- said.

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced it would be relinquishing its oversight role of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which runs the technical side of the Internet's domain name system. The Commerce agency said that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- which manages the assignment of domain names and operates the technical side of the domain name system under contract with the Commerce Department -- will convene Internet stakeholders to develop proposals for transitioning oversight of IANA from the US government to a global entity.

Rep Eshoo said she welcomes the transition "to a multistakeholder governance community, guided by the principles of an open, secure, stable and resilient Internet.”

Federal Communications Commissioner Mike O’Rielly warned that Congress should anticipate abuse as it looks to update the law governing the communications industry.

“Expect [that] people are going to misinterpret and abuse your provision and then work backwards,” he said.

Commissioner O’Rielly, the newest of the two Republicans on the FCC, suggested that the members and staff working on the Communications Act rewrite “leave out extraneous provisions.” He noted the political benefits of including “benign” provisions but warned, “those are the ones that often come back to haunt you,” because they are most easily misinterpreted by a “misguided court or activist agency.”

Sen John Thune (R-SD) commended the Commerce Department's move to relinquish control over the technical system that manages web addresses and said it should remain out of the hands of other governments.

"I trust the innovators and entrepreneurs more than the bureaucrats -- whether they're in DC or Brussels," the Senate Commerce Committee's top Republican said. The Internet "doesn't need a nanny state, or a collection of nanny states, trying to stifle it," Sen Thune said. "It needs -- and deserves -- a strong multi-stakeholder system free from the control of any government or governmental entity."

The mobile app industry wants to make privacy policies easier to understand. Mobile security company Lookout launched a tool to help app developers turn lengthy, legal documents into short form privacy policies that users can comprehend.

The privacy toolkit walks developers and their lawyers through a questionnaire to help them shorten and simplify their privacy policies. App users need “a short form privacy policy that is really clear … and understandable,” Lookout’s Associate General Counsel Irene Liu, said. Lookout’s launch follows on the 2013 launch of a government-backed voluntary code of conduct, encouraging app developers to be more transparent about their data practices.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to fix the country’s “Whac-A-Mole” copyright system. During a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, members said they want to find a solution for copyright holders who must repeatedly ask Internet companies like Google to take down infringing content online.

“Victims of theft but have to fight tooth and nail to protect their property” from online piracy, Rep Judy Chu (D-CA) said.

Under current copyright law, Internet platforms are not held liable for copyright infringement committed by users as long as they have policies that prohibit infringement and take actions to remove infringing content when notified. Members on both sides of the aisle drilled down on how the current system affects small and independent creators.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) said he wants to focus on independent creators. “Those are the ones I’m mostly concerned with because the big corporations are going to usually take care of themselves,” he said. Members of the subcommittee urged the tech companies and content creators to work together to avoid government intervention in the online space.

One of Congress' most vocal critics of US government surveillance is demanding information about whether intelligence agencies spy on members of Congress.

Rep James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the author of the original Patriot Act, told the Justice Department in a letter he wants a response by March 28 to questions about whether and how intelligence agencies spy on lawmakers.

"It has been over a month and my colleagues and I have not received a response," he wrote to US Deputy Attorney Gen James Cole. Rep Sensenbrenner's letter also addresses recent information provided by Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

A federal court reversed an earlier decision and will allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to hold phone records relating to pending lawsuits.

Judge Reggie Walton, siding with plaintiffs who were suing over the legality of the NSA's surveillance programs and wanted the government to retain the data for the lawsuits, issued a restraining order to keep the government from destroying the data. The Department of Justice filed with the surveillance court, asking for clarification on the two conflicting rulings.

"These conflicting directives from federal courts put the government in an untenable position and are likely to lead to uncertainty and confusion," Judge Walton wrote, allowing the government to keep the data. Judge Walton set out limits for how the NSA can use the data it must now retain. Agency personnel can access the data "only for the purpose of ensuring continued compliance with the government's preservation obligations," he wrote.

Security expert and surveillance critic Alex Stamos is Yahoo's new Vice President of Information Security, the company announced.

Previously, Stamos was Chief Technology Officer at Internet security firm Artemis and is an organizer of TrustyCon, a technology conference organized and sponsored by anti-surveillance companies and advocacy groups.

Stamos "will lead all aspects of information security at Yahoo, including our team of Yahoo 'Paranoids,' charged with making our products as secure as possible," Yahoo Senior Vice President of Platforms and Personalization Products Jay Rossiter wrote in a company blog post. "This is a broad role which includes implementing top-to-bottom security for our products and systems but also to lead the company and the industry in not just how security works today but how it needs to work in the future."

[March 11]

The tech industry is bracing for an imminent vote at the European Union that could put its business on the continent at risk.

Despite assurances from the US government, some European officials are calling for changes to the rules and agreements that allow US companies to process data belonging to European citizens, in the hopes of keeping that data out of the hands of the National Security Agency (NSA).

The EU Parliament will consider two measures that would affect the way American tech companies do business in Europe. The first is a privacy regulation that would end the Parliament’s role in a two-year process to update, strengthen and make cohesive EU privacy law, heightening privacy and security standards for the companies that deal with European citizens’ data. Once the Parliament approves the regulation, which is the expected outcome of the upcoming vote, the EU legislators have to negotiate over the law with the individual governments of EU countries. The second measure is a report from the body’s Civil Liberties Committee, which opened an investigation into US government surveillance after the revelations about NSA electronic surveillance, including that of European officials. That report made a number of recommendations about US companies’ access to data belonging to European citizens, including the immediate suspension of international agreements between the EU and US that allow US companies to process European data.

[March 10]