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February 2014

Senate Judiciary Committee
February 12, 2014
10 am
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=138603a26950ad87...

Witness List

  • David Medine
  • Patricia M. Wald
  • Rachel L. Brand
  • James X. Dempsey
  • Elisebeth Collins Cook


How You Can Be Tracked for Just Pennies a Day, and What It Means for The Future of Privacy

New America Foundation
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

It used to be that if the government wanted to secretly track your movements, it would have to spend hundreds of dollars an hour on a team of agents to follow you. Now it can track a cellphone for just pennies a day. The cost of surveillance is sharply dropping, making previously unimaginable surveillance cheap and easy. How can privacy law keep up, and ensure that our rights are protected against tech-enabled spying that was impossible-or impossibly costly-just a few years ago?

That question is the subject of an article just published by the Yale Law Journal Online, "Tiny Constables and the Cost of Surveillance: Making Cents Out of United States v. Jones," co-authored by independent privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani, who has recently shared the byline on some of the Washington Post's most explosive front page exposés on the NSA's surveillance programs, and Kevin Bankston, the Policy Director of New America's Open Technology Institute. Combining legal analysis of US v. Jones, the Supreme Court's landmark case on GPS tracking and the Fourth Amendment, with analysis of the actual dollar costs of location tracking methods through the decades, the authors chart a new cost-based theory of privacy that might be applied to new technologies.

Moderator
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries
Reporter, Wall Street Journal
@jenvalentino

Featured Speakers
Kevin Bankston
Policy Director, New America's Open Technology Insititute
@kevinbankston

Ashkan Soltani
Independent researcher & consultant specializing in consumer privacy & security
@ashk4n

Commentators
Orin S. Kerr
Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor, George Washington University Law School

Christopher Soghoian
Principal Technologist of the Privacy & Technology Project of the American Civil Liberties Union
@csoghoian

Marc Zwillinger
Founder & Managing Partner, ZwillGen PLLC
@MJZwills

To RSVP for the event:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2014/the_cost_of_surveillance

For questions, contact Kirsten Holtz at New America at (202) 735-2806 or holtz@newamerica.org


What Comes Next in the IP Transition: Experiments and Research Targeted to Network Values

[Commentary] In a previous post, we looked at the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent decision to invite voluntary, service-based experiments to evaluate how customers are affected by the historic technology transitions that are transforming our nation’s voice communications services. Those experiments will examine the impacts on consumer values when providers substitute a new technology or service for a legacy one, with an eye toward discontinuing the legacy service in the post-transition world. In this article, we examine the FCC’s additional proposals for targeted experiments and cooperative research to explore the impact of technology transitions that focus on universal access. These proof-of-concept initiatives are focused on new technologies for particular groups of consumers, aspects of network functions, or more effective ways to reach all Americans.

The FCC Gets Down to Details in IP Transition Trials

[Commentary] One important step in the transition of our phone network from traditional TDM-based technology to IP (and in some cases from copper networks to fiber or wireless) is to figure out exactly how those new technologies are going to impact consumers. The Federal Communications Commission has now set out plans for a series of experiments on various aspects of the network transition.

Right off the bat, the FCC starts on the right foot by setting out the core values that establish the purpose of the trials: “public safety, ubiquitous and affordable access, competition, and consumer protection.” Public Knowledge agrees with this approach -- in fact, our own Five Fundamentals for the network transition agree with much of what the FCC has adopted. The FCC Order sets out three directions for the upcoming trials: 1) Voluntary Service-Based Experiments; 2) Targeted Experiments and Cooperative Research; and 3) Ongoing Data Initiative.

FCC to Launch Rural Broadband Trials

Small Internet providers that have been trying to tap federal funds to serve hard-to-reach rural customers are going to get a crack at some of that money, but their first step will be convincing the Federal Communications Commission there's demand for the funding.

The FCC voted to launch an experimental program to allow surplus from the Connect America Fund to go to rural broadband providers that hadn’t previously been eligible for the support. The money will pay for pilot projects to help the FCC learn what approaches work best for expanding broadband service in rural areas. How much money will go into the pilot projects? The FCC hasn't decided yet. And here’s the catch: The commission is going to wait to see how many broadband providers are interested in the new source of support before they determine the overall funding for the experiment. “I think if we see a big expression of interest, we’ll set a bigger budget,” said Jonathan Chambers, the chief of the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. “We’ve got to hear from folks first, and I think we will. ... But if we don't hear anything, we'll learn something.” Rural broadband advocates say the field is up to the challenge. “This is a chance to show the FCC that there’s a lot of interest among rural providers for this funding,” said Edyael Casaperalta, coordinator of the Rural Broadband Policy Group and on staff at the Center for Rural Strategies.

Fighting for more #transparency

The US Department of Justice and various communications providers reached an agreement allowing disclosure of national security requests in very large ranges. While this agreement is a step in the right direction, these ranges do not provide meaningful or sufficient transparency for the public, especially for entities that do not receive a significant number of -- or any -- national security requests.

Allowing Twitter, or any other similarly situated company, to only disclose national security requests within an overly broad range seriously undermines the objective of transparency. In addition, we also want the freedom to disclose that we do not receive certain types of requests, if, in fact, we have not received any. Unfortunately, we are currently prohibited from providing this level of transparency. We think the government’s restriction on our speech not only unfairly impacts our users’ privacy, but also violates our First Amendment right to free expression and open discussion of government affairs. Therefore, we have pressed the US Department of Justice to allow greater transparency, and proposed future disclosures concerning national security requests that would be more meaningful to Twitter’s users. We are also considering legal options we may have to seek to defend our First Amendment rights.

[Kessel is Twitter’s Manager of Global Legal Policy]

When tech jobs don't last forever

There are job cuts and there are companies that announce plans to cut jobs. The outplacement firm Challenger Grey and Christmas keeps a monthly tally of the latter, and there's news just now these layoff announcements surged in January.

A combined total of 45,100 jobs will eventually go, including many jobs from the supposedly screamingly-hot world of technology. John Challenger said that while the tech industry has seen a lot of growth, it's also subject to a lot of volatility. Companies like Intel and EMC are shifting their business strategies to account for the mobile market.

#CommActUpdate: Congress Should Focus on Competition, Consumer Choice

The House Commerce Committee requested communications industry stakeholders to weigh in on the legislative effort to modernize the legal and regulatory framework governing the country’s communications sector. Verizon submitted comments.

The dizzying array of choices that consumers now have to communicate -- and the wide range of players competing to meet consumers’ communications needs -- bears scant resemblance to the voice-centric world of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Given the fundamental changes in the communications sector, Congress shouldn’t just tweak the current statute, but instead start from scratch and create a policy and regulatory framework that fits the 21st Century broadband world. As Congress considers a framework for the 21st Century broadband world, Verizon suggests that it remain focused on a few long-standing goals that will remain relevant regardless of where the marketplace evolves next: protecting consumers, promoting competition, and encouraging investment and innovation. Furthering these goals requires a change of course from the old ways of regulating. In place of today’s outdated framework, Congress should embrace an approach based on consumer choice, competition and effective multi-stakeholder processes to address emerging issues or market failures. Finally, it’s important for Congress to consider a review of policies in other areas -- such as public safety, accessibility and spectrum management -- that will continue to be important even as technology and the ways people communicate continue to evolve.

[Peter Davidson is Senior Vice President of Federal Government Relations at Verizon]

Iridium, Globalstar Pursue Customers With Satellite Wi-Fi

Satellite-phone companies, seeking to expand beyond their niche market, are introducing products that let consumers set up Wi-Fi in remote campgrounds and other places where there’s no cellular signal.

Iridium Communications unveiled Iridium GO!, a portable device that creates a Wi-Fi hot spot, allowing as many as five smartphones to make calls or surf the Web. Low-end service plans are expected to start at about $35 a month, with unlimited plans at about $130 a month. Globalstar, one of Iridium’s competitors, introduced a similar product called Sat-Fi on Jan 29. It’s the first time that satellite companies have made hot spots fully portable, said Jose Del Rosario, research director at Northern Sky Research. Previously, users had to install bulky Wi-Fi hardware at homes, offices or camps to get online. The new gadgets make satellite service accessible to hikers, who can use them while trekking through the wilderness. Del Rosario predicted that about 150,000 of these portable hot spots will be in use by the end of 2022. That would make them an attractive new market for both competitors. Iridium had 377,000 voice-and-data subscribers at the end of September, while Globalstar had more than 85,000 through direct sales.

Unfazed, Houston Pushes Ahead on 1-to-1 Computing

Undeterred by high-profile problems experienced by other large school systems attempting to put digital devices in the hands of their students, the Houston Independent School District began distributing more than 18,000 laptop computers to high schools last month. Officials from the 210,000-student district point to several elements of their plan as reasons for optimism: Unlike the troubled iPad initiative in Los Angeles, for example, Houston will give students laptops instead of digital tablets; rely on "Web 2.0 tools" rather than a pre-loaded digital curriculum; and offer extensive training for students and staff members.

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