BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Meeting today: https://www.benton.org/node/223991
PRIVACY/SURVEILLANCE
UK surveillance “worse than 1984,” says new UN privacy chief
How to Make Privacy Policies Better, in Two Easy Steps - analysis
When your TV can spy on you. - LA Times' David Lazarus [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Cell Carriers Battle for Wi-Fi Airwaves
TELEVISION
Pay-TV operators ditching lower-income customers, driving up average revenue per sub, analyst finds
Verizon to FCC: Fix Broken Retrans System [links to web]
Broadcasters want Dish, DirecTV and Mediacom branded as retrans “bad actors” [links to web]
JOURNALISM
As legacy media cuts back on FOIA, digital-only news outlets step in - CJR op-ed
Boston Globe Pledges Columnist Will Stop Writing About Telecom Issues After Conflict Of Interest Criticism [links to web]
A rule for online news: Errors are inevitable; lack of transparency is not - op-ed [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Farm Computer Usage and Ownership - USDA research [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
As 911 outages increase, FCC considers new rules [links to web]
CONTENT
Is Amazon Creating a Cultural Monopoly? - New Yorker analysis [links to web]
Streaming services aren't kidding around as they compete for young viewers [links to web]
LABOR
Program trains older adults in online work [links to web]
HEALTH
Why Your Doctor Won't Friend You On Facebook [links to web]
EDUCATION
How High Schoolers Spent Their Summer: Online, Taking More Courses [links to web]
OPEN GOVERNMENT
Caroline Kennedy Used Personal E-mail for State Department Business, Report Finds [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
A 21st-Century Migrant’s Essentials: Food, Shelter, Smartphone
UK surveillance “worse than 1984,” says new UN privacy chief
China’s Party-Run Media Is Silent on Market Mayhem [links to web]
PRIVACY/SURVEILLANCE
UK SURVEILLANCE "WORSE THAN 1984," SAYS NEW UN PRIVACY CHIEF
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Glyn Moody]
The newly appointed United Nations special rapporteur on privacy, Joseph Cannataci, has called the United Kingdom's oversight of surveillance "a rather bad joke at its citizens’ expense," and said that the situation regarding privacy is "worse" than anything George Orwell imagined in his novel 1984. Cannataci said: "at least Winston [a character in Orwell's 1984] was able to go out in the countryside and go under a tree and expect there wouldn’t be any screen, as it was called. Whereas today there are many parts of the English countryside where there are more cameras than George Orwell could ever have imagined. So the situation in some cases is far worse already." Cannataci is also concerned about the routine surveillance carried out by Internet companies as a key part of their business model. "They just went out and created a model where people’s data has become the new currency," he said. "And unfortunately, the vast bulk of people sign their rights away without knowing or thinking too much about it."
benton.org/headlines/uk-surveillance-worse-1984-says-new-un-privacy-chief | Ars Technica
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HOW TO MAKE PRIVACY POLICIES BETTER, IN TWO EASY STEPS
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Robinson Meyer]
[Commentary] The agita over Spotify’s privacy policy resembled disputes in 2015 over other companies’s privacy policies -- like Samsung’s and Uber’s -- as well as the the cyclical fretting over Facebook’s reach. These scandals have attained a degree of predictability: They are almost as formulaic as the legalese of the policies themselves. But beyond the cycle of discovery, outrage, and apologetic adjustment, there are deeper problems. The way lawyers, executives, and developers address user privacy just doesn’t work that well. Neither consumers nor corporations benefit from our current amend-then-freak-out regime. The situation could also be improved with two different specific adjustments, one legal and one technical. Legally, the tech-policy writer Logan Koepke advocates that companies should announce a new privacy policy whenever they change. If a regulatory change looks unlikely, though, there is a technical intervention that Apple and Google could make. Imagine if, right before a run, Spotify asked for 60 minutes of access to your GPS location. If you still seemed on the move 55 minutes later, it would ask for another hour of access. That seems to me like a better trade: Not all the access, all the time, wherever; but access right now, for a little while, here. Apple or Google could encourage this practice simply by making that feature possible at the operating-system level. It would be more seamful, and it would be more trustworthy.
How to Make Privacy Policies Better, in Two Easy Steps - analysis
benton.org/headlines/how-make-privacy-policies-better-two-easy-steps | Atlantic, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
WI-FI AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Gryta, Ryan Knutson]
A battle is brewing among tech giants over the future of Wi-Fi, the ubiquitous and unregulated wireless connections at the core of the mobile Internet. Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. are preparing to broadcast cellular signals over some of the same free airwaves currently used by Wi-Fi networks. The wireless carriers plan to begin rolling out the technology in 2016. That worries startups like Republic Wireless as well as companies like Google and Cablevision that have built services that rely on Wi-Fi networks. They argue Verizon’s and T-Mobile’s signals could take up space Wi-Fi services normally use and crowd them out. Wi-Fi networks—in homes, offices, airports and coffee shops—already carry more than half of mobile data usage globally. Google officials wrote a letter in June to the Federal Communications Commission urging caution.
benton.org/headlines/cell-carriers-battle-wi-fi-airwaves | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION
PAY-TV OPERATORS DITCHING LOWER-INCOME CUSTOMERS
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Daniel Frankel]
A focus on higher-income customers by pay-TV operators is driving both cord-cutting and average revenue per customer, said Strategy Analytics analyst Jason Blackwell. "Over the past few quarters we have seen price increases from Dish Network and DirecTV as well as other Pay TV operators," Blackwell said. "But, there is also evidence from our primary research that cord-cutters could actually be driving up the ARPU (average revenue per user) as well. We are finding that a large number of those people who have dropped a pay TV service have lower household incomes." In a report issued the week of Aug 17, Blackwell noted the contrast between a record-setting second quarter for cord-cutting and sharp increases in per-customer revenue. DirecTV, for example, lost 133,000 subscribers during the second quarter, but saw per-customer revenue increase by 6.4 percent to $109.93. Dish Network lost 81,000 customers in the second quarter but had a 4.4 percent increase in per-user revenue to $87.91.
benton.org/headlines/pay-tv-operators-ditching-lower-income-customers-driving-average-revenue-sub-analyst-finds | Fierce
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JOURNALISM
AS LEGACY MEDIA CUTS BACK ON FOIA, DIGITAL-ONLY NEWS OUTLETS STEP IN
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Trevor Timm]
[Commentary] Ask any journalist and they’ll tell you the Freedom of Information Act process is broken. Denials are at record highs, navigating the bureaucracy can be a nightmare, and the federal agencies recently killed a modest reform bill. But a series of FOIA lawsuits also have just shown how the 50-year-old transparency law can still be indispensable. And absent any change in the law, the best way for news organizations to make sure it stays relevant is to use it innovatively and aggressively. A study by Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse showed that, with the exception of The New York Times, no legacy news organization sued the government under FOIA in 2014. But where print newspapers have largely faded away, digital-only news organizations -- including some that are foolishly caricatured as mere meme generators and gossip mags -- are thankfully starting to spend the time and money to fill the gap.
[Trevor Timm is the executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation]
benton.org/headlines/legacy-media-cuts-back-foia-digital-only-news-outlets-step | Columbia Journalism Review
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
FOOD, SHELTER, SMARTPHONE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Brunwasser]
The tens of thousands of migrants who have flooded into the Balkans in recent weeks need food, water and shelter, just like the millions displaced by war the world over. But there is also one other thing they swear they cannot live without: a smartphone charging station. Technology has transformed this 21st-century version of a refugee crisis, not least by making it easier for millions more people to move. In this modern migration, smartphone maps, global positioning apps, social media and WhatsApp have become essential tools. Migrants depend on them to post real-time updates about routes, arrests, border guard movements and transport, as well as places to stay and prices, all the while keeping in touch with family and friends. The first thing many do once they have successfully navigated the watery passage between Turkey and Greece is pull out a smartphone and send loved ones a message that they made it.
benton.org/headlines/21st-century-migrants-essentials-food-shelter-smartphone | New York Times
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