July 2014

Sen Leahy Introduces Historic Bill To Ban NSA’s Dragnet Collection Of Americans’ Electronic Communications

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced legislation that would restore Americans’ privacy rights by ending the government’s dragnet collection of phone records and requiring greater oversight, transparency, and accountability with respect to domestic surveillance authorities.

The updated version of the USA FREEDOM Act builds on legislation passed in the House in May, as well as the original legislation Sen Leahy introduced with Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) in October 2013. The legislation bans bulk collection under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and other surveillance authorities, requires the government to narrow the scope of a search to a clearly defined “specific selection term,” adds needed transparency and reporting requirements, and provides key reforms to the FISA Court.

Acc-cen-tuate the negative?

The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) is a new law that makes it illegal to charge a consumer for goods or services sold in an Internet transaction through any negative option method -- including trial conversions, continuity plans, or automatic renewals -- unless the business:

clearly and conspicuously discloses all materials terms of the transaction before getting consumers’ billing information;
gets consumers’ express informed consent before charging their accounts; and
offers simple ways for people to stop the recurring charges.

US government increases funding for Tor, giving $1.8m in 2013

Tor, the Internet anonymizer, received more than $1.8 million in funding from the US government in 2013, even while the National Security Agency was reportedly trying to destroy the network.

The bulk of the US funding came in the form of "pass-through" grants, money which ultimately comes from the US government distributed through some independent third-party. Formerly known as "the onion router", Tor is software which allows its users to browse the Internet anonymously.

The Tor Project also received direct funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of State, totaling $100,325 and $256,900 respectively.

How data caps could reshape the economics of the Internet (again)

[Commentary]The Government Accountability Office is out with a new preliminary report on data caps, in response to a request by Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA).

Among its findings? Broadband companies can take advantage of usage-based pricing to "generate more revenues" for their business, but ordinary consumers are often befuddled by the rules, potentially leading to over-payment.

GAO interviews with ordinary consumers revealed that most people have little to no idea how much data they actually use, despite some ISPs' offer of tools to help customers track their intake. Many incorrectly assumed, for instance, that online shopping requires a lot of data. Others believe that "leaving social media applications running in the background used large amounts of data."

White House Announces $10 Billion Rural Economic Development Fund

The White House Rural Council announced a $10 billion dollar investment fund to promote rural economic development.

This fund will continue to grow the rural economy by increasing access to capital for rural infrastructure projects and speeding up the process of rural infrastructure improvements. The fund is immediately open for business and more investors can now add to the initial $10 billion in available capital.

House Approves Stronger Cyber Protections For Critical Infrastructure

Two bills to strengthen cybersecurity in the systems that underlie the nation’s energy, water and food supplies passed the House, along with a measure to improve the federal government's cyber workforce.

A bill (H.R. 3696) introduced by Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX) seeks to strengthen the Department of Homeland Security's ability to protect 16 critical sectors -- including defense, health, energy and food -- by establishing partnerships with the private sector and enhancing programs already in place.

Other legislation passed by the House included a bill (H.R. 2952) introduced by Rep Patrick Meehan (R-PA) to improve critical-infrastructure security technology and a bill (H.R. 3107) from Rep Yvette Clarke (D-NY) to bolster DHS’ cyber workforce.

Rep McCaul’s cybersecurity information sharing center: If you build it, will they come?

[Commentary] The House of Representatives placed four cybersecurity bills -- all pieces of a larger cybersecurity legislative puzzle -- on the House suspension calendar.

The core bill, sponsored by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX), would establish the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, a coordination point for civil information sharing between sector-specific coordination groups and federal, state, and local government agencies. Should the bill pass, will its provisions be enough to bring cybersecurity to the top of the agenda in corporate America?

Chairman McCaul’s effort establishes a baseline for the importance of cooperating and coordinating the efforts of owners and operators of critical infrastructure. Cross-sector facilitation is needed to get to the next step in managing cybersecurity. Similar to the creation of the baseline organization of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention almost 60 years ago, cybersecurity information sharing could create benefits that would prevent and minimize incidents that affect multiple networks.

Creating the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center would be the first major step towards creating such a system of prevention, preparation, and planning, and would likely be one that we would all benefit from.

[Tews is the Chief Policy Officer at 463 Communications]

Privacy groups call for action to stop Facebook's off site user tracking plans

United States and European Union privacy and consumer groups called on privacy regulators to stop Facebook's plans to gather the Internet browsing patterns of its users while they visit other sites.

The groups, gathered in the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) to stop Facebook collecting the web browsing activities of Internet users in order to target advertising.

The groups also called on the FTC to examine whether Facebook's change in business practices violates a 2012 consent order between it and the FTC in a case involving the company's repeated sharing of information its users had asked to keep private

Meet the Woman Keeping Silicon Valley in Check

A Q&A with Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

Chairwoman Ramirez is currently suing two of Seattle’s biggest tech companies: Amazon, for allegedly making it too easy for kids to rack up in-app purchases on their parents’ Kindles, and T-Mobile, for allegedly cramming unwanted charges into customers’ phone bills.

Chairman Ramirez has taken a laser focus to the activities of tech companies, particularly in regards to mobile. The new FTC head talked about the hidden permissions lurking in terms of service agreements, Facebook’s controversial mood study and whether Americans should ever expect a “right to be forgotten” online.

Minorities in newsrooms increase; 63 percent of newspapers have at least one woman among top-three editors

The number of minority journalists in daily-newspaper newsrooms increased by a couple of hundred in 2013 even as newsroom employment declined by 3.2 percent, according to the annual census by the American Society of News Editors and the Center for Advanced Social Research.

The 2014 census also found that 63 percent of the news organizations surveyed have at least one woman among their top three editors. The percent of minority leaders is lower, with 15 percent of participating organizations saying at least one of their top three editors is a person of color.

Benton

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