press release

The Federal Trade Commission announced the agenda for its second PrivacyCon, a public forum that will continue and expand collaboration among leaders from academia, research, consumer advocacy, and industry on the privacy and security implications of emerging technologies.

PrivacyCon 2017 will take place in Washington (DC) on Jan. 12, 2017 and include opening remarks from FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. The conference will feature 18 presentations of original research on important consumer privacy and security issues and a closing panel moderated by Jessica Rich, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. The event will cover five major topic areas: the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data; mobile privacy; consumer privacy expectations; online behavioral advertising; and information security. During each session, panelists will present their privacy research and then participate in a discussion addressing the broader issues raised by the research.

US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker received a series of recommendations from members of the Digital Economy Board of Advisors that identify key actions the US Department of Commerce can take to support the digital economy, encourage growth and increase opportunity. The recommendations, with accompanying reports, were issued by three working groups of the Board of Advisors that focused on areas where the digital economy has fundamentally transformed the economy. The working groups were established by the Board last spring, and their reports cap six months of intense work to offer actionable recommendations to the Department along with areas worthy of further study.

The Federal Communications Commission amended its rules to allow phone companies to replace support for an outdated form of text telephone communications, known as TTY, with support for real-time text, to provide reliable telephone communications for Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, or who have a speech disability.

As the nation’s communications networks migrate to IP-based environments, real-time text technology will allow Americans with disabilities to use the same wireless communications devices as their friends, relatives and colleagues, and more seamlessly integrate into tomorrow’s communications networks. Under FCC rules, phone companies and manufacturers are required to support accessible text communications services, which for years have taken the form of TTY services. Under the new rules, carriers and manufacturers will be allowed to use the more advanced and interoperable real-time text technology to meet this obligation.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released the final year-end report of the Obama administration's results creating jobs and investing in rural communities nationwide. The report includes success stories from every state illustrating the many ways USDA helps create jobs, make infrastructure improvements and boost economic development. Some of USDA's accomplishments since 2009 include providing high-speed broadband access to 6 million rural Americans.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) outlined its readiness for a public-private partnership to deploy the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (Network), including a plan to ensure progress on key Network components in the first 100 days of the partnership. Meeting Dec 14 in Sacramento (CA), the FirstNet Board and executive team discussed major steps in the evolution of FirstNet as an operational entity. The Board also addressed how FirstNet will meet the objectives for initial deployment of the Network. Specifically, FirstNet leadership focused on the critical work to be completed during the first 100 days on core design and technology roadmaps, the state plans portal, and other network components.

"We are now in implementation mode and stand ready to move forward on this Network for public safety,” said FirstNet Chair Sue Swenson. “The first 100 days will be critical to setting the foundation for success; we are prepared from both an operational and planning standpoint to deliver public safety the network they deserve."

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) is pleased to announce that Dr Rikin Thakker has joined MMTC as Vice President of Telecommunications and Spectrum Policy. Dr Thakker brings to the MMTC team a rich background from work in academia, the private sector, and as an industry leader. In his new role with MMTC, Dr Thakker will use his extensive technical knowledge and expertise to inform MMTC’s policy positions and the impact of telecom policy on minorities and women, and specifically the impact on diverse entrepreneurs and the underserved who are currently facing the digital divide. In addition, Dr. Thakker will serve as the lead content developer for MMTC’s joint Department of Labor contract with the National Urban League (NUL) and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA). Under the contract, the NUL/MMTC/WIA consortium will connect unemployed and underemployed minorities, primarily African Americans, with Registered Apprenticeships in telecommunications infrastructure within seven US regions.

In addition to his work at MMTC, Dr. Thakker is co-founder and senior advisor at RF Academics, where he has designed, managed, and developed content on several telecommunications areas. He is also a faculty member for the Master’s Program in Telecommunication at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of University of Maryland, and is an adjunct professor for Engineering Management and Systems Engineering department of George Washington University.

Citing an enormous potential to reduce crashes on US roadways, the US Department of Transportation issued a proposed rule that would advance the deployment of connected vehicle technologies throughout the US light vehicle fleet. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology on all new light-duty vehicles, enabling a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that, once fully deployed, could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes every year by helping vehicles “talk” to each other. Separately, the Department’s Federal Highway Administration plans to soon issue guidance for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, which will help transportation planners integrate the technologies to allow vehicles to “talk” to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, stop signs and work zones to improve mobility, reduce congestion and improve safety.

V2V devices would use the dedicated short range communications (DSRC) to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles. That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, and using that information, V2V-equipped vehicles can identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes. Vehicles that contain automated driving functions—such as automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control—could also benefit from the use of V2V data to better avoid or reduce the consequences of crashes.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the PAST Foundation’s National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA-PAST), announced a pilot project that aims to increase digital inclusion in the United States through local digital literacy trainers, called the Digital Inclusion Corps. The pilot project will work with three state library agencies and two museum organizations to deploy Corps members in five tribal and rural communities. The five Corps members will work with local communities to discover their community digital inclusion-related needs. They will then create a digital equity plan to address such issues as affordable home Internet access, public access, low-cost devices and digital literacy training and technology support.

With support from a the project manager, the Corps members will implement the plans, share their experiences online and gather and annotate a collection of digital literacy materials for a publicly available repository at the US Impact Research Group at the University of Washington. Evaluation data will be collected throughout the project period. The pilot is part of a broader effort between IMLS and NDIA-PAST to create more equitable access to online information as well literacy support and training for all residents and communities, particularly those most disadvantaged.

House Commerce Committee Chairman-elect Greg Walden (R-OR) announced that Mike Bloomquist, Karen Christian, Peter Kielty, and Paul Edattel will continue to serve the committee. All are longtime veterans of Capitol Hill.

Bloomquist will serve as Deputy Staff Director for the Committee. He has served in this position since August 2015. In addition, he previously served as the Committee General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, as well as General Counsel to the 2011 Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Further, Mike has spent time in private practice, at the Committee on Science, and in the Office of the US Department of the Interior. Christian will continue as Committee General Counsel, a position she has held since October 2014. Previously, she served as Chief Counsel for the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee from 2012-2014, and was a member of the O&I staff since 2006. Karen spearheaded the Committee’s oversight of the Healthcare.gov failure and the federal loan guarantee to Solyndra. Her previous experience includes serving as counsel to the Committee on House Administration, a clerkship with a US District judge and time spent in private practice. Kielty will serve as Deputy General Counsel of the Committee. Kielty is a 15-year veteran of the Committee, and has served as Deputy General Counsel since 2012. Peter has advised on the parliamentary and jurisdictional matters before the Committee. Edattel will continue to serve as Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health. Paul started with the Committee in 2011 and has served as Chief Health Counsel since 2016, after serving Speaker John Boehner as his health policy advisor. Paul also served as a Legislative Director in the House of Representatives before joining the Committee.

The Federal Trade Commission issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2016. Consumers can use the National Do Not Call Registry to choose not to receive telemarketing calls. Now in its eighth year of publication, the Data Book contains a wealth of information about the Registry for FY 2016 (from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016), including:
The number of active registrations and consumer complaints since the Registry began in 2003
FY 2016 complaint figures by month and type
FY 2016 registration and complaint figures for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, by population
Rankings of the number of Do Not Call registrations, by state population
The number of entities accessing the Registry by fiscal year
An appendix with registration and complaint figures organized by consumer state and area code.
According to the Data Book, at the end of FY 2016, the Do Not Call Registry contained just over 226 million actively registered phone numbers, up from the 223 million at the end of FY 2015. In addition, the number of consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls received increased from just under 3.6 million during FY 2015 to just over 5.3 million during FY 2016.