July 2014

Snowden Undermines Presidential Panel’s Defense of NSA Spying

Just when the National Security Agency looked as though it had finally scored a victory for its maligned surveillance programs, Edward Snowden again crashed the party.

The newest leak, reported by The Washington Post, claims that the vast majority of accounts scooped up in a foreign-intelligence program are not those of actual overseas targets but ordinary Internet users whose communications with those targets are incidentally collected. While revealing on its face, Snowden's latest revelation also arrived just days after the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent watchdog agency, deemed spying under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legal and effective.

Whether intentional or not, the timely Post article -- the culmination of a four-month investigation of 160,000 email and instant-message conversations -- serves in part as a rebuke to the privacy board's conclusions, civil-liberties groups say, and calls into question the completeness of its review, which stands in stark contrast to the board's critical review of the spying on domestic phone records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

"There definitely seem to be discrepancies" between the reports, said Liza Goitein, codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "It appears that, in the Snowden documents [American] information is collected deliberately in far broader circumstances than what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board discussed."

The Latest Snowden Leak Is Devastating to NSA Defenders

[Commentary] Consider the latest leak sourced to Edward Snowden from the perspective of his detractors. The National Security Agency's defenders would have us believe that Snowden is a thief and a criminal at best, and perhaps a traitorous Russian spy.

In their telling, the NSA carries out its mission lawfully, honorably, and without unduly compromising the privacy of innocents. For that reason, they regard Snowden's actions as a wrongheaded slur campaign premised on lies and exaggerations.

Snowden defenders see these leaked files as necessary to proving that the NSA does, in fact, massively violate the private lives of American citizens by collecting and storing content -- not "just" metadata -- when they communicate digitally. They'll point out that Snowden turned these files over to journalists who promised to protect the privacy of affected individuals and followed through on that oath.

The NSA collects and stores the full content of extremely sensitive photographs, emails, chat transcripts, and other documents belong to Americans, itself a violation of the Constitution -- but even if you disagree that it's illegal, there's no disputing the fact that the NSA has been proven incapable of safeguarding that data.

There is not the chance the data could leak at some time in the future. It has already been taken and given to reporters. The necessary reform is clear. Unable to safeguard this sensitive data, the NSA shouldn't be allowed to collect and store it.

Amazon Tries to Woo Authors in Hachette Dispute

Amazon, awash in negative publicity in its confrontation with Hachette over e-book terms, is seeking to break the standoff by appealing directly to the publisher’s authors.

David Naggar, an Amazon executive who works with publishers and independent authors, sent a letter to a small group of Hachette writers proposing “a big windfall for authors” by taking them “out of the middle” of the dispute. The letter extends and develops a proposal Amazon made earlier in the dispute, which was dismissed by Hachette. It now offers Hachette authors “100 percent of the sales price of every Hachette e-book we sell.”

Amazon also offered to suspend all its shipping delays and price adjustments, which it put in place in an effort to bend Hachette to its will. Roxana Robinson, president of the Authors Guild, dismissed the proposal.

Grappling with the Privacy Paradox

[Commentary] A popular water cooler topic in the policy and technology communities is something called the Privacy Paradox. Recently, EMC Corporation, a leading enterprise cloud-based services company, released its inaugural EMC Privacy Index.

This study was commissioned by the company to better understand consumer perceptions about the need to protect personal privacy online and how that ranks as a consumer priority against the benefits of convenient online commerce and social media sharing, alongside other priorities such as the use of data analytics to prevent terrorist attacks and protect national security. Its data reflects survey responses from 15,000 consumers in 15 countries, including the United States.

The vast majority of respondents in all surveyed countries (91 percent) indicated they value the benefit of “easier access to information and knowledge” that digital technology affords. Yet 81 percent also expected privacy to erode over the next five years, and 59 percent said they have less privacy than a year ago. Less than half of all respondents (45 percent) also indicated they were willing to trade some of their privacy for easier access.

Limited Government Group Wants To Limit Satellite Bill

Americans for Limited Government want a limited satellite reauthorization bill or, preferably, no new compulsory license at all.

In a letter to Sen John Thune (R-SD), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens said that it would be better for the satellite compulsory license to expire and program negotiations revert to the marketplace. But if it has to be extended, any such reauthorization should exclude retransmission consent reforms.

"Congress has recognized broadcasters' right to compensation for the product of their labor from cable and satellite providers for retransmission of their stations' valuable signals to subscribers," Mehrens said. "Under the current system, broadcasters and pay television providers negotiate in the free market to reach mutually beneficial agreements -- with agreements successfully reached an overwhelming majority of the time. It would be a mistake for the federal government to hobble broadcasters' right to negotiate fair market value for their product."

ACT Takes Stand for TVFreedom

American Community Television -- which has been battling cable operators over public, educational, and government (PEG) channel placement -- has joined broadcasters in battling them over retransmission consent reforms.

TVFreedom.org said that ACT had become a member of the coalition, which includes network affiliate associations, the National Association of Broadcasters and others pushing back against calls for retransmission consent reforms.

"Local broadcast TV stations and PEG channels often work together to deliver vital public service, educational and religious programming to viewers in their communities and cannot be replicated by pay-TV or broadband service providers," said ACT executive director Bunnie Riedel.

Journalists Accuse White House of Politically-Driven Suppression of News

Over three dozen journalist organizations including the Radio Television Digital News Association, National Press Foundation, and the Society of Professional Journalists, have asked President Barack Obama to drop the "excessive controls" on public information by federal agencies, branding it "politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies."

There has been an ongoing tension between broadcast, print and online journalists and the Obama Administration, with complaints that the Administration has limited access to events, while providing its own "coverage" through official channels.

In a letter to President Obama, the groups complained about policies that require journalists to go through public information officers (PIOs) before talking with staff and that have PIOs vetting interview questions and monitoring interviews with sources.

Tech workforce diversity: Recognizing problem is the first step to solving it

[Commentary] Most of us hope all Americans have a fair chance to be successful without regard to ethnicity or gender. However, the tech world has for too long been dominated by one gender and limited in ethnic diversity. Now, as major companies such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn have disclosed their workforce and leadership diversity data, it is painfully clear the sector faces a persistent and troubling deficit when it comes to women, African-Americans and Latinos.

We'd like to commend these companies and others that have provided this data. Are we satisfied with the picture it presents? Hardly. But as female members of a legislative body starkly unrepresentative of our nation, we know the first step in solving any challenge is recognizing there is one.

Transparency promotes fairness. Data about applicants and new hires, pay equity, promotions and management composition reported by race, gender and ethnicity promotes equal opportunity.

With more transparency, American individuals and investors could make better-informed decisions about investing in companies that leverage ability with diversity. With more data, job-seekers and employees will have better information to decide where to work and consumers can make informed choices about where to spend their money.

NSA’s misguided snooping on innocent people

[Commentary] Even those who believe the National Security Agency’s vacuum-cleaner surveillance of electronic communications does not trample privacy rights should be troubled by this practical implication: If you try to know everything, you end up knowing nothing.

The NSA is gathering and warehousing enormous amounts of private information, most of it irrelevant because it concerns innocent individuals -- mostly foreigners but some US citizens as well. By “innocent,” I mean the NSA is convinced these people have no involvement with any activity that poses a threat. But the agency keeps their information anyway.

Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, July --December 2013

Preliminary results from the July -- December 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes with only wireless telephones continues to grow.

Two in every five American homes (41.0%) had only wireless telephones (also known as cellular telephones, cell phones, or mobile phones) during the second half of 2013 -- an increase of 1.6 percentage points since the first half of 2013 and 2.8 percentage points since the second half of 2012.

However, these increases are smaller than those observed in previous years.

This report presents the most up-to-date estimates available from the federal government concerning the size and characteristics of these populations. The 41 percent of households without a landline telephone account for nearly 93 million adults and almost 35 million children across the country. People under 30, houses with several unrelated roommates, poorer residents and Hispanic people were more likely to be relying solely on their cellphones. Nearly 9 percent of American households had only landline service, without wireless access.

Benton

Search