Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] To consumers, an Internet service provider using customer geolocation data (for example) to send them relevant advertising or Google using geolocation data to send them relevant advertising is a distinction without a difference. To require that consumers opt-out of a default privacy protection regime for ISPs and opt in to a privacy regime for using Google or Facebook potentially confuses the privacy issue. Why doesn’t the FCC just apply the same privacy law to Google and Facebook? Because it can’t.

Concerns about privacy are legitimate and change over time. It is reasonable to vigilantly and continuously assess the costs and benefits of any given privacy policy and adjust when necessary. But a disjointed policy that treats similarly situated economic players differently is not the answer.

[Babette Boliek is an associate professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law ]

Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), co-chairs of the Senate Broadband Caucus, have introduced bipartisan legislation to measure the economic impact of broadband on the US economy. While the federal government measures the economic impact of many industries, it does not produce current, reliable statistics on the economic impact of broadband on the US economy. Accurate, reliable data on the economic impact of broadband is a valuable tool for policymakers and business leaders and many research institutions, state broadband offices, and trade associations have highlighted the need for this data.

The Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act would require the Bureau of Economic Analysis to conduct a study of the effects of broadband deployment and adoption on the US economy. In conducting this analysis, the Secretary will consider job creation, business headcount, online commerce, income, education and distance learning, telehealth, telework, agriculture, population growth, population density, broadband speed, and geography. The Secretary may consult representatives of business, including rural and urban internet service providers and telecommunications infrastructure providers; state, local, and Tribal government agencies; and consumer and community organizations.

Common Sense Kids Action has joined with educational groups to champion the restoration of Lifeline eligibility for nine companies. The eligibilities, granted in the waning days of the Federal Communications Commission under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler, were rescinded by the Wireless Competition Bureau and returned to "pending" status by new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, saying he wanted to boost prevention of waste, fraud and abuse before expanding the program. Chairman Pai pointed out that only one of the companies was even providing service yet. Common Sense et al. filed comments at the FCC in support of a petition by Free Press asking the commission to reconsider that decision.

Former Indiana Republican Sen Dan Coats was confirmed as the country’s top spy chief, taking over as Congress demands more information from the intelligence community about alleged contacts between the president’s advisers and Russian officials. The Senate voted 85 to 12 to confirm Coats as the director of national intelligence, a role in which Coats pledged to work closely with members of Congress to facilitate their various probes into allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections for the purpose of aiding President Trump’s chances of victory.

Coats promised to provide lawmakers access to the intelligence community’s findings during his confirmation hearing in Feb before the members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. But just hours before the Senate voted to confirm him March 15, leaders of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence raised concerns that their access to documents about the Russia investigation was being limited at the very office Coats is taking over.

The Department of Health and Human Services wants all Americans to be able to access their health records electronically. Health care providers that participated in HHS's Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program offered nearly 9 out of 10 patients the ability to access their health information online. We found that relatively few of these patients accessed their records online, and patients typically did so in response to a medical visit. We also found that HHS doesn't know how effective its efforts to increase online access have been. We recommended HHS develop performance measures to assess the effectiveness of these efforts.

Us Weekly, a celebrity magazine that has long been a staple at checkout counters, is changing hands. On March 15, American Media Inc., which owns entertainment publications like the National Enquirer and Radar Online, announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Us Weekly from Wenner Media, which has owned it since 1985. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but two people briefed on the deal said the price was $100 million. The acquisition of Us Weekly will give American Media a younger, more affluent audience, and a larger digital presence. It will also increase American Media’s heft in celebrity gossip — along with the National Enquirer and Radar Online, the company publishes the supermarket staples Star and OK!

When politicians talk about infrastructure, they typically mean the basics: Roads, bridges, ports. The electric grid. Maybe rail, if it's lucky. But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai wants the government to expand that thinking by including a type of network that 3 out of 4 Americans use on a daily basis, but doesn't often make it on the politicians' lists: high-speed Internet.

“If Congress moves forward with a major infrastructure package, broadband should be included,” said Chairman Pai. He is proposing an ambitious program whereby the FCC could expand corporate subsidies for building networks while scaling back regulations that, he said, deter private investment. In addition, Chairman Pai is asking that Congress offer tax credits to Internet service providers and entrepreneurs who agree to set up shop in “gigabit opportunity zones” that could be as large as a county or as small as a city block.

The House Intelligence Committee has taken the first public step in its investigation into intelligence community leaks involving aides to President Donald Trump, pressing three agencies to provide information on spying involving 2016 campaign associates. Committee heads Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed that they are pressing the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) on aides who may have been spied on through a loophole in US surveillance law and were then subsequently “unmasked” and exposed to the media. The demand formalizes Chairman Nunes’s promise to investigate media leaks of sensitive information, and his recently expressed concern over backdoor surveillance of US persons. Chairman Nunes pointed to former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in Feb after leaked surveillance of his phone calls to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak revealed that he had misled Vice President Pence about a discussion of U.S. sanctions.

President Trump's impending budget proposal is expected to include deep cuts to public media, among other things, which would surely delight Republican lawmakers who have been trying, on and off, to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for five decades. If Republican lawmakers are hoping to cripple political coverage by NPR and PBS, however, stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to the CPB might not have the desired effect.

NPR relies on the corporation for less than 1 percent of its revenue, and PBS depends on the agency for less than 7 percent, according to data from 2014, the most recent year for which audited financial statements for all three entities were available. Because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has low overhead costs, it distributes almost all of the taxpayer money it receives, in the form of grants. From its $445 million appropriation in 2014, the corporation paid out $441.7 million, or 99.3 percent. Defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would primarily affect local public broadcasters, not PBS and NPR. The CPB noted this when the wrote, "The federal investment in public media is vital seed money — especially for stations located in rural America, and those serving underserved populations where the appropriation counts for 40 to 50 percent of their budget. The loss of this seed money would have a devastating effect. These stations would have to raise approximately 200 percent more in private donations to replace the federal investment." In other words, defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would mean hurting the local TV and radio stations that a whole lot of Republican voters watch and listen to.

A combination of political transition, economic forces, and good timing may spark a flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications and media industries in 2017. Deregulation and market determinism are major parts of the new administration’s agenda. And the new Republican Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai isn’t likely to push against the tide when it comes to industry consolidation. Chairman Pai recently said that he’ll use a “light touch” approach to regulating the industry, and not “micromanage” the marketplace.