Daily Digest 3/23/2018 (I Give You the Omnibus)

Legislation to reauthorize the Federal Communications Commission, boost mobile broadband, and provide additional funds, as needed, for broadcasters' moves to new spectrum in the post-incentive auction repack has been included in the must-pass omnibus spending bill, which must pass by March 23 to avoid another government shutdown. The RAY BAUM Act (which incorporated Sen. John Thune's MOBILE NOW Act) that made it onto the bill differs slightly from the one that passed the House, according to a Hill source. 

The omnibus funding bill includes the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data [CLOUD] Act, which provides a legal framework for law enforcement to request data from overseas servers. The CLOUD Act provides a framework for reciprocal treaties for nations to request data from computers located within each other's borders. It also provides a mechanism for a Microsoft to take a law enforcement demand to court if it would force them to violate another country's rules. But when neither apply, law enforcement will be able to demand files in accordance with US law.

The Federal Communications Commission began an examination of how to more quickly route wireless 911 calls to the proper 911 call center, which could result in faster response times during emergencies. In a Notice of Inquiry, the FCC seeks comment on the extent of “misrouted” wireless 911 calls and approaches to avoid such delays, including the feasibility of routing 911 calls based on the location of the caller as opposed to the location of the cell tower that handles that call. The FCC noted that recent technological advances suggest that in many situations it is now possible to route 911 calls to the correct call center based on information about the caller’s location. Among other questions, the Notice of Inquiry invites comment on how the FCC can facilitate and promote location-based routing improvements.

The Federal Communications Commission took steps to provide increased flexibility in the use of consumer signal boosters and proposed additional actions to further enhance the usefulness and effectiveness of these boosters. The rules  eliminate the current personal use restriction on provider-specific boosters so that businesses, public safety entities, educational institutions, and other enterprise users and their customers can also benefit from the use of boosters. The FCC also adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to explore ways to allow additional flexibility in the use of consumer signal boosters, including seeking input on removing unnecessary barriers to embedding boosters within vehicles. The FNPRM proposes to eliminate the personal use restriction on wideband boosters and to authorize non-subscribers to operate both types of consumer signal boosters, and seeks comment on whether to expand consumer signal booster operations to additional spectrum bands. Consumer signal boosters are devices that extend and improve wireless service without special engineering or professional installation. The boosters are designed to be used “out of the box” to improve wireless coverage within a limited area such as a home, boat, office, or recreational vehicle. Boosters can be “wideband,” i.e., able to operate on the frequencies and in the market areas of multiple licensees, or “provider-specific,” i.e., operating only on the frequencies and in the market areas of the licensee(s) specified during the certification of the device.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a proposal to move forward in an effort to reduce calls placed by businesses and other legitimate callers to numbers that are no longer assigned to the consumers who consented to receive those calls. The FCC is proposing that one or more databases be made available to give businesses the information they need to avoid making such calls, and thus reduce the number of unwanted calls to reassigned numbers. The Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking  proposes and seeks comment on ways to address this reassigned numbers problem. Specifically, the Further Notice:

• Proposes to ensure that one or more databases are available to provide callers with the comprehensive and timely information they need to avoid calling reassigned numbers.
• Seeks comment on the information that callers who choose to use a reassigned numbers database need to avoid calling a reassigned number.  Seeks feedback on three alternative ideas for service providers to report that information: (1) requiring service providers to report reassigned number information to a single, FCC-designated database; (2) requiring service providers to report that information to one or more commercial data aggregators; or (3) allowing service providers to report that information to commercial data aggregators on a voluntary basis.
• Seeks comment on whether and, if so, how the Commission should adopt a safe harbor from liability under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for those callers that choose to use a reassigned numbers database.

Frustrated with repeated delays costing taxpayers millions of dollars, the Kentucky Senate has voted to effectively end a project that would bring high-speed internet capability to one of the poorest states in the country. But officials in Gov. Matt Bevin's administration warn it would likely cost more to kill the project than it would to finish it. That's because the state could be responsible for paying $286 million to pay off a loan to Macquarie Capital, the Australian-based venture capital firm that along with its partners has a contract to install a network of more than 3,000 miles of fiber optic cables touching all of Kentucky's 120 counties.

Opponents fear that the Stop Enabling Online Sex Trafficking Act messes with a key ground rule that has allowed the internet to flourish. “Section 230 we’ve been saying for a long time is responsible for creating the modern internet that we know and love—not to say that the current Internet doesn’t have problems,” says India McKinney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. But, she says, the law provided the “the legal buffer that was needed to create these online communications platforms.” The bill will create an exception Section 230 for enforcing federal and state criminal and civil law related to sex trafficking if a website operator “knowingly” assists, supports, or facilitates sex trafficking. Opponents say the bill will change the way outside content is moderated on the internet, but they don’t agree on how. Some say the “knowingly” standard will push tech companies to stop all moderation efforts for fear of finding something and being held liable. Other say the bill will result in extreme censorship as companies scour their platforms for any content related to sex trafficking, harming sex workers in the process.

The data on millions of Facebook users that a firm wrongfully swiped from the social network probably has spread to other groups, databases and the dark Web, experts said, making Facebook’s pledge to safeguard its users’ privacyhard to enforce. Paul-Olivier Dehaye, a privacy expert and co-founder of PersonalData.IO suspects the data has already proliferated far beyond Cambridge Analytica’s reach. “It is the whole nature of this ecosystem,” Dehaye said. “This data travels. And once it has spread, there is no way to get it back.” Frank Pasquale, a professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in algorithms and tech ethics, called this “the runaway data problem,” and said there is no way to return the genie to the bottle when it comes to securing data that has been released. Location and demographic information, which was taken from Facebook, can often be used to tie someone to other data points where the identity was previously unclear.

What would it look like if Congress gave the Federal Trade Commission better tools to address online privacy? The most recent high-profile model comes from the European Union, where General Data Protection Regulation becomes the law of the land on May 25. GDPR focuses on ensuring that people who use online services know not only exactly what data those companies will take, but how they put it to use. One danger of an overly prescribed law is that technological solutions can outpace those mandates.