Ars Technica

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reportedly wants to get rid of the FCC's network neutrality rules and replace them with "voluntary" commitments from ISPs. The theory goes something like this: as long as ISPs commit to protecting net neutrality in their terms of service, the FCC can eliminate its rules while the Federal Trade Commission would punish ISPs that fail to comply with their net neutrality promises.

Under ideal circumstances, this could prevent ISPs from committing egregious violations of net neutrality principles. But "voluntary" isn't just a euphemism—ISPs would only be bound by net neutrality requirements as long as they promise to follow them. Even if all ISPs put the promise into their terms of service agreements, it's not clear what would stop them from removing the promise later. If any new ISPs enter the market, it's also unclear what would compel them to make the same promises. And those aren’t the only problems that would make net neutrality enforcement more difficult under Pai's proposal.

While the US government is giving Internet service providers free rein to track their customers’ Internet usage for purposes of serving personalized advertisements, some Internet users are determined to fill their browsing history with junk so ISPs can’t discover their real browsing habits. Scripts and browser extensions might be able to fill your Web history with random searches and site visits. But will this actually fool an ISP that scans your Web traffic and shares it with advertising networks?

Legislation approved by the Minnesota House and Senate the week of March 27 would prevent Internet service providers from collecting personal information without written approval from customers. The quick action came in response to the US House and Senate voting to eliminate nationwide rules that would have forced ISPs to get consent from Americans before using or selling Web browsing history and app usage history for advertising purposes.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign off on Congress' decision to kill the Federal Communications Commission privacy rules. While there wouldn't be any rules for ISPs at the national level, states could try to implement some form of the FCC rules for their own residents. ISPs might conceivably change their practices nationwide if enough states do so, or customers in some states could have fewer privacy protections than customers in other states. As on climate change, immigration and a host of other issues, some state legislatures may prove to be a counterweight to Washington by enacting new regulations to increase consumers’ privacy rights.

[Commentary] As cloud computing has become an integral part of the lives of students at public schools, it has increased the importance of a place generations of students have turned to for much more analog learning needs—the library. Both public and school libraries have always been a source of information for students. And while the Internet has undoubtedly changed the way students do research, cloud-based tools have actually evolved the library's role rather than diminished it.

Public computers at libraries have become an extension of the classroom, and they're an important resource for children who don’t have unfettered access to broadband Internet at home. The cloud has only made those public computers more effective.

[Phil Shapiro is the Public Geek at the Takoma Park Maryland Library, a small public library in the Washington DC-area]

A free speech advocacy organization sued the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking "statistical, policy, and assessment records regarding the government’s searches" of digital devices at the United States border. The group, the Knight First Amendment Institute based at Columbia University, said on that the lawsuit came about as a result of recent journalism on the issue. There has been a rapid uptick in the number of such incidents: February 2017 alone had more border searches of phones, tablets, and computers than all of 2015. Gillian M. Christensen, the acting DHS press secretary, declined to comment further, saying, "As a matter of policy, DHS does not comment on pending litigation."

On March 23 the Senate voted to eliminate privacy rules that would have forced Internet service providers to get your consent before selling Web browsing history and app usage history to advertisers. Within a week, the House of Representatives could follow suit, and the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2016 would be eliminated by Congress.

So what has changed for Internet users? In one sense, nothing changed this week, because the requirement to obtain customer consent before sharing or selling data is not scheduled to take effect until at least December 4, 2017. ISPs didn’t have to follow the rules yesterday or the day before, and they won’t ever have to follow them if the rules are eliminated. But the Senate vote is nonetheless one big step toward a major victory for ISPs, one that would give them legal certainty if they continue to make aggressive moves into the advertising market.

Years in the making, a proposal to mandate the installation of fiber conduits during federally funded highway projects might be gaining some new momentum. If the US adopts a "dig once" policy, construction workers would install conduits just about any time they build new roads and sidewalks or upgrade existing ones. These conduits are plastic pipes that can house fiber cables. The conduits might be empty when installed, but their presence makes it a lot cheaper and easier to install fiber later, after the road construction is finished.

Dig once legislation received specific support from House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), who said that he is "glad to see [Rep Anna] Eshoo’s (D-CA) 'Dig Once' bill has made a return this Congress. I think that this is smart policy and will help spur broadband deployment across the country." At the Federal Communications Commission, dig once has support from Democrats and Republicans. Former Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, endorsed the policy, and so has the current FCC chairman, Republican Ajit Pai. Pai said in 2016 that "government officials should adopt 'dig once' policies so that broadband conduit is deployed as part of every road and highway construction project."

In 2016, North Carolina won a court case against the Federal Communications Commission, a victory that allowed it to restore a state law that restricts the growth of municipal broadband networks. This created an immediate problem for new customers of one municipal-run broadband provider.

After the FCC's 2015 vote to preempt the state law, Greenlight Community Broadband in Wilson, North Carolina, began offering service outside the Wilson County boundaries, something it previously wasn't allowed to do. Greenlight now serves about 200 customers in the nearby town of Pinetops, as well as Vick Family Farms in rural Nash County. Greenlight came close to shutting off Internet service to those new customers after the state ban on municipal broadband expansion was upheld by a federal appeals court. But in October 2016, the Wilson City Council voted to provide free Internet service to Pinetops and Vick Family Farms for six months. Wilson's wholesale providers agreed to waive their fees for six months, making this decision possible. Wilson's Greenlight ISP was technically in compliance with the state law as long as it didn't charge its new customers for service, but Wilson community leaders hoped the state legislature would eliminate or change the state law before the six months were up.

That might be on the verge of happening. Reps. Susan Martin, R-Wilson and Jean Farmer-Butterfield, D-Wilson introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow Greenlight Community Broadband to keep its existing customers outside the Wilson County lines.

Some Kansas City residents who have been waiting years for Google Fiber to install service at their homes recently received e-mails canceling their installations, with no word on whether they'll ever get Internet service from the company. While Google Fiber refuses to say how many installations have been canceled, a local broadcasting station said, "there is speculation the number of cancellations in the metro is as high as 2,700." "The company says it has slowed down in some areas to experiment with new techniques," such as wireless technology, the report also said. Google Fiber is still hooking up fiber for some new customers in parts of the Kansas City area.

Recently in Dallas (TX), a six-month-old baby boy named Brandon Alex died after the child's babysitter was unable to reach 911 from a T-Mobile phone. At the very same time, the Dallas 911 call center was overwhelmed by "a spike in calls" due to what has become known as "the ongoing T-Mobile ghost call issue," a Dallas city government announcement said. Police are reportedly investigating whether the 911 problem led to the death. Just days before Alex's death, a local man named Brian Cross died after it took 20 minutes for his husband, David Taffet, to reach 911. "Taffet called 911 and was disconnected. He called back and was put on hold," The Dallas Morning News reported. Paramedics arrived quickly after Taffet finally reached a 911 dispatcher, and Cross was taken to a hospital, but died within an hour.